diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/Joda.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/Joda.java
index 6f538ebc76597..587be110e8208 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/Joda.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/Joda.java
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ public static FormatDateTimeFormatter forPattern(String input, Locale locale) {
             // in this case, we have a separate parser and printer since the dataOptionalTimeParser can't print
             // this sucks we should use the root local by default and not be dependent on the node
             return new FormatDateTimeFormatter(input,
-                    ISODateTimeFormat.dateOptionalTimeParser().withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC),
+                    ISODateTimeFormat.dateOptionalTimeParser().withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC).withDefaultYear(1970),
                     ISODateTimeFormat.dateTime().withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC), locale);
         } else if ("dateTime".equals(input) || "date_time".equals(input)) {
             formatter = ISODateTimeFormat.dateTime();
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ public static FormatDateTimeFormatter forPattern(String input, Locale locale) {
             }
         }
 
-        return new FormatDateTimeFormatter(input, formatter.withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC), locale);
+        return new FormatDateTimeFormatter(input, formatter.withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC).withDefaultYear(1970), locale);
     }
 
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/DateMathParserTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/DateMathParserTests.java
index 0a0418a16d3f1..40588f615ebda 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/DateMathParserTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/joda/DateMathParserTests.java
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.common.joda;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ElasticsearchTestCase;
+import org.joda.time.DateTime;
+import org.joda.time.DateTimeZone;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
@@ -44,4 +46,13 @@ public void actualDateTests() {
         assertThat(parser.parse("2013-03-03||/y", 0), equalTo(parser.parse("2013-01-01", 0)));
         assertThat(parser.parseRoundCeil("2013-03-03||/y", 0), equalTo(parser.parse("2014-01-01", 0)));
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void partialDatesDefaultToYear1970() {
+        // when the year is not part of the format, it must default to the 1970 epoch base
+        // (rather than joda's default of 2000), consistent with how partial dates are indexed
+        DateMathParser parser = new DateMathParser(Joda.forPattern("MM-dd"), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
+        assertThat(parser.parse("01-01", 0), equalTo(0l));
+        assertThat(parser.parse("06-15", 0), equalTo(new DateTime(1970, 6, 15, 0, 0, DateTimeZone.UTC).getMillis()));
+    }
 }