We will have a time change at dawn on Sunday as we take our clocks one hour ahead. When the clock shows 03:00 we will turn it an hour ahead to show 04:00.
When was the time change introduced?
Summer time is based on a system that aims to better utilize daylight to save energy. In Greece and Europe, summer time is applied on the last Sunday of March, for 7 months, and winter time (or solar time) starts on the last Sunday of October, with application for 5 months.
Today the part of the world's population that uses time rotation is in the minority as almost all Asian and African countries do not participate. Others countries have abolished it or are planning to repeal the measure.
In Greece, summer time was first applied, on a trial basis, in 1932, namely from July 6 to September 1, when the clocks were set one hour ahead. But then it was abandoned, because on July 28, 1916 at 04:00 hours, the clocks in Greece were put 25 minutes ahead of the admission of the time zone that had been decided worldwide. So, the difference in relation to the light of the Sun that determines the real time became very big, mainly in the western parts of the country and more in Corfu. In the following years, a simple shift in the opening time of public services and shops by half an hour in the winter season was adopted.
However, in the 1970s, just two years after the energy crisis that broke out in Europe in 1973, it was decided to adopt the summer-time measure by a large part of its states, including Greece, starting in 1975. The clock change is made in accordance with a European Union directive obliging all Member States to apply it as a law, and takes place on the last Sunday in March at 1 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and ends on the last Sunday of October of the same year at 1 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time. The change is therefore simultaneous for all Member States that have adopted the measure.
The EU's proposal and the... suspense
The EU's proposal was that the time change should stop on the last Sunday of March 2021 for countries that want to keep summer time permanently. Similarly for member states that want winter time, the change must take place on the last Sunday of October 2021. Greece made a time change on Sunday, March 28, 2021 and has not yet made a decision on whether it will be the last time change or not. The rest of the EU countries have not taken any final decisions, due to important events such as Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.
