White Sunday

In Samoa, White Sunday is a special holiday that is highly anticipated all year long by the children because on White Sunday, it is the children who are in charge of the church services.

The attire for the day is an uncompromised "white" formal attire. If you arrive at the church early enough, you can observe everybody arriving - a sea of white.

The women will often wear white dresses with a white hat, often decorated with lace and veils. The men will wear their white traditional attire of a formal "ie", which is a formal version of the decorative and floral padeo or lava lava. Formalized, the formal ie's match their accompanying coat jacket, white shirt, and often tie that complete the male dress code for the day. Children will often be attired like the adults, though the young boys may or may not have a coat jacket to accompany their ie. ("ie" is pronounced a lot like "Eeyeh" with a long "e" followed by a short "e")

Following the church service, is a feast, called a to'ona'i. On normal Sundays the adults would eat first, and the children afterward, but on White Sunday the roles are reversed. On White Sunday, the children are seated prominently and the adults serve them.