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Sleep an hour less tonight. But why do we change the time? And will we stop changing?
Mainland Portugal and the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores will set the clocks forward one hour in the early hours of this Sunday, starting daylight saving time.
In mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Region of Madeira, clocks will advance one hour when it is 01h00 on Sunday, becoming 02:00.
In the Autonomous Region of Azoresthe change will be made to 00h00changing to 01:00.
Why do we change the time? Are we going to stop changing?
Changing the time dates back to the 18th century, but was officially implemented in Portugal in 1916, during the First World War. Inspired by Germany and other European countries, the measure aimed to make better use of sunlight and save energyin times of conflict. But throughout the 20th century, Portugal suspended and resumed this practice several times.
The current time change regime is regulated by a directive (community law) of 2000which predicts that every year the clocks will be, respectively, moved forward and backward by one hour on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October, marking the beginning and end of daylight saving time.
In September 2018, the European Commission proposed the end of the seasonal adjustment, after having received “requests from citizens and Member States, a resolution from the European Parliament, several studies, as well as a public consultation”, which defended this measure, but the process has been blocked since then, due to lack of agreement between Member States on the matter.
Questioned by the Lusa agency, the European Commission said at the end of last week that “it’s still possible” reach a consensus to end the time change, adding that he will present a study in this regard later this year.
A legal time will change again on October 25thfor the winter regime.
We don’t always change the time in Portugal
Portugal has already gone through several periods without changing the time throughout the year, despite the seasonal change of clocks being part of the routine today.
According to those at the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, there were several years in which the country maintained the same time throughout the year. This happened, for example, in 1922, 1923, 1925, 1930 e 1933check at .
Later, between 1967 and 1975, Portugal continuously lived in summer timewithout seasonal changes. The experience ended up, however, revealing difficulties, especially in the winter months, when many people started the day at night.
Already between 1992 and 1996, under the Government of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, Portugal adopted Central European timein an attempt to get closer to the rest of the continent. The measure generated criticism and was eventually abandoned. In 1996, with António Guterres, the country returned to the current systemaligned with the Greenwich time zone and seasonal time changes.
