Just a few days left for the time changewhere we have to adjust our watches one hour ahead.
The time change will take place on Sunday, March 30, 2025. Specifically, the watch indicators at 03:00 should go an hour ahead and show 04:00. The summer time will be maintained until Sunday, October 26, 2025.
The announcement by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport states: “We remind you that, on Sunday, March 30, 2025, the application of the winter time measure ends, in accordance with Directive 2000/84 of the European Parliament and the Council of 19/01/2001, on the provisions on winter time.
The watches must be moved one hour ahead, ie from 03:00 am. In 04:00 am. “
Summer hours were established to limit energy consumption, as people can exploit more daylight.
The idea was attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who in 1784, in an article in a French newspaper, had suggested that people would have to wake up earlier to exploit sunlight, saving energy (and therefore to economy) as they would burn less candles.
However, the summer schedule was officially implemented for the first time in Germany and Austria in 1916, during World War I, as a measure of energy saving.
Today, in most European countries, time is changed twice a year. On the last Sunday of March, where watches turn one hour ahead (summer time), while on the last Sunday of October, watches move one hour back (winter time).
In recent years, the utility of summer hours has been questioned, as living and working conditions have changed dramatically. The European Union has discussed the possible abolition of the measure, leaving the Member States to decide whether to maintain the summer or winter time permanently.
In addition, changing time affects the human body, causing temporary sleep and mood disorders. However, the measure continues to apply in many countries.
When was the time change in Greece first applied
In Greece the summer was first applied, trial, in 1932 and specifically from July 6 to September 1, when the watches were put up an hour ahead. However, it was then abandoned because on July 28, 1916 at 04:00, the watches in Greece had been put 25 minutes ahead of the time of the time that had been decided worldwide.
Thus the difference in the sunlight that defines and the real time became very large, mainly in the western parts of the country and more in Corfu. In the following years a simple shift was adopted in the opening time of public services and shops by half an hour in the winter season.
In the 1970s, however, just two years after the energy crisis that erupted in Europe in 1973, it was decided to adopt the summer time by much of its states, including Greece, starting in 1975.