On the night of October 27-28, Europe switches to winter time. The current transition may be the last. The European Commission, based on a survey conducted among EU citizens, abolishes the transition to summer and winter time in the countries of the Union. True, as history shows, the decision to switch to summer and winter time has been made and canceled more than once.

It all started with a joke

In 1784, the famous American public figure Benjamin Franklin was in Paris on a diplomatic mission. After eight years in France, he had sufficiently studied the everyday problems of Parisians and often made fun of them. At the insistence of French friends, in particular, the founder of the Journal de Paris newspaper Antoine Cade de Vaux, the famous publicist often published anonymously in his publication, where he sent his satirical notes “on the topic of the day.”

In one of them, Benjamin Franklin informs readers of his discovery, which he made thanks to the oversight of his servant, who forgot to close the shutters at night. The author of the article woke up at six in the morning to find that the sun rose so early!

And if you move the clocks forward another hour and use this daylight time for work, then in the evenings you won’t have to light any candles at all, going to bed right after sunset, he decided.

The elderly politician immediately calculated that if during the summer period the townspeople were woken up at dawn by cannon shots and church bells, the state could save a tidy sum!

Summer time during the crisis

A very serious proposal to use daylight more efficiently in 1895 and in 1907 was made by entomologist and astronomer George Vernon Hudson from New Zealand and British inventor William Willett.

A keen early morning golfer, William Willett proposed moving the clocks forward 80 minutes in the summer (20 minutes every Sunday in April and also back, but only in September), which would save up to £2.5 million on lighting.

The biggest supporter of daylight saving time was the future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, but he was not immediately able to implement such a reform. This first happened in 1916, after during the First World War the clocks were first moved forward an hour in Germany and Austria-Hungary, followed by Great Britain, France and other European countries, and in 1917 Russia.

In 1919, daylight saving time was canceled again in Germany: it reminded too much of the war and the Treaty of Versailles. History repeated itself in 1940. The clock hands were moved back again, and Berlin time was in effect throughout the entire territory occupied by the Wehrmacht troops.

After the end of the war, all attempts to “reform time” led nowhere. Since 1949, by mutual agreement, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic again abolished summer time.

In the homeland of Benjamin Franklin, the annual change of clocks to daylight saving time was introduced during the First World War, but until 1966, each region of the country had the right to independently decide what to do about it.

European summer

In Germany, during the years of economic growth, no one talked about switching to daylight saving time. And only after the oil crisis in 1973 they began to talk again about the possibility of saving resources by increasing daylight hours. It is paradoxical that among Western European countries in 1976, summer time was introduced only in France. Later, several other countries followed suit. In 1979, the GDR surprised everyone by announcing the transition to summer time. It was only in 1980 that clock hands began to be regularly moved in Germany.

In 1996, uniform transition rules were approved for all EU countries. However, the controversy surrounding this painful topic never subsided. Scientists proved the detrimental effect on people’s health, economists argued that such actions were inappropriate, and the Europeans themselves, as shown by the vote to abolish the time change, eventually demanded winter and summer time.

The legendary Benjamin Franklin could hardly have imagined the consequences of his seemingly harmless joke.

For a long time, first in the Soviet Union, and then in modern Russia, time (clock hands) was changed 2 times a year.

In the spring, the clock hands moved by one hour and the time became summer, and in the fall, as a result of the translation, the time again became winter.

However, now in Russia the rule about changing time twice a year has been abolished. Russians do not need to change their clocks in 2019. So the answer to the question “When do we change the time in 2019” is NEVER.

Where and when do the clocks change to winter time in 2019?

In some countries, residents still change their clocks twice a year. For example, this is done in Ukraine.

The 2019 clock change in such countries will take place at the end of March at the end of October.

* the transition to summer time in the spring will occur on the last Sunday in March - on the night of March 25-26, 2019.

* the transition to winter time in the fall will occur on the last Sunday of October on the night of October 28-29, 2019.

The time is changed manually from two to four o'clock in the morning (or morning). This year the clock change will take place at 4 am Moscow time.

Switching to winter time - who invented it and why

The first person who decided to change time by moving the hands was the American politician and inventor Benjamin Franklin. In 1784, he was envoy to France, and decided to publish an anonymous appeal to Parisians about saving candles by using morning sunlight.

But the French did not support B. Franklin’s idea at one time. It was the New Zealand entomologist D.V. who officially proposed changing the arrows. Hudson. In 1895, in his article, he proposed a 2-hour shift, which would increase daylight hours.

In 1908, for the first time in Great Britain, clocks were moved forward an hour in summer and back an hour in winter. The goal of such changes was considered to be significant savings in energy resources. In the United States, the transition to “winter” and “summer” time has been carried out since 1918.

In Russia, they began to change the time on July 1, 1917, then the hand was moved forward an hour (by decree of the Provisional Government), and the hands were moved back an hour by decree of the Council of People's Commissars (December 22, 1917, old style) on June 16, 1930, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars The USSR introduced maternity time, the clocks were moved one hour ahead relative to standard time, the hands were not moved back until 1981, when the country switched to seasonal time again.

Since 1997, they began to change the time to “winter” from the end of October, and to “summer” from the end of March. On February 8, 2011, the President of Russia, the post was then headed by D.A. Medvedev, it was decided to cancel the transition to winter time in the fall.

And on March 27, 2011, Russia switched to permanent “summer” time. On July 21, 2014, Russian President V. Putin signed a law on the transition to permanent “winter” time; the new norms came into force on October 26, 2014.

Why was the clock change to winter time canceled in 2019 in Russia?

Not so long ago, in 2011, seasonal time was abolished in Russia. That is, in fact, they canceled the time change twice a year. In the spring of 2011, time was changed for the last time (as was then believed), and Russians began to live in permanent summer time.

However, the majority of citizens were dissatisfied with the decision to live in permanent summer time. As it turned out, in many regions of the Russian Federation, local time began to differ significantly from astronomical time (also called standard time) that is comfortable for humans.

As a result, after three and a half years in Russia, a decision was made to universally return to permanent winter time. At the end of October 2014, the clock hands were moved back an hour, and the time became comfortable standard (“winter”).

Since then, time in Russia has become permanently winter and is no longer changed.

However, there are regions that have privately carried out a one-time change of clock hands in accordance with the wishes of their citizens. So, in October 2016, in the Saratov region, time was moved forward 1 hour.

Experiments with the abolition of the transition to summer and winter time in Russia unexpectedly made our country a leading state in Europe. In 2018, the topic of switching hands was raised in European countries, and the inhabitants of the continent made their clear choice. Will the transition to winter time take place in Europe in 2018, what did the inhabitants of the continent decide regarding the change of clock hands in the fall and spring of each year.

Will the transition to winter time take place in Russia in 2018?

Let's start with our country. The generally advanced initiative of canceling the switches every six months was not implemented very successfully. The state initially chose permanent daylight saving time. This turned out to be inconvenient; constant summer time did not coincide too much with astronomical time, so the clock hands were moved again. Now in our country the so-called winter time always applies.

In addition, a separate reform has been carried out in some regions of Russia in recent years. The number of time zones in the country was reduced, and certain territories of the state moved to the neighboring time zone. Therefore, at some points in certain regions the clock hands were moved, although the whole country did not do this.

All this has confused many Russians, and people are still confused whether there will be a transition to winter time in Russia or not.

No, in this regard, stability has finally arrived in our country. There is no longer any need to change clocks between summer and winter time. By the way, Europe has also begun to move towards this.

Will Europe switch to winter time in 2018?

Yes, at the end of this month the transition to winter time in European countries will take place, as it did for many decades before.

However, perhaps everything will change for the European continent in a year. The fact is that in the summer of 2018, residents of the continent were asked to vote whether they wanted to continue changing the clocks every six months or whether they wanted to abandon this rule.

The voting was carried out on the Internet; in total, more than 4.5 million Europeans took part in it (the majority were Germans). In the end, the result was clear - 80% of those who voted were in favor of establishing stable winter time and not touching the clock hands anymore. We can say that Europe has decided to follow the example of Russia.

The Europeans' decision will have to be officially approved, and this will have to happen next year. It is known for sure that on October 28 this year Europe will switch to winter time, and on March 31, 2019 - to summer time.

The decision to cancel the time change will be a pan-European one, but each country on the continent will need to decide which time it will live by - summer or winter. If the state chooses daylight saving time, the clock will change on March 31st. If you choose winter, on October 27, 2019 you will need to move the clock again and forget about it forever.

On the night of Sunday, October 28, the countries of the European Union may have moved their clocks back one hour for the last time. Apparently, in the future, European countries will have daylight saving time. At the end of August, the head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced the decision to abandon the annual transition to winter and summer time.

Initiative of the European Parliament

The European Parliament took the initiative to cancel the clock change. In February 2018, he asked the European Commission to give a “reasonable assessment” of the directive regarding the transition to summer time.

In adopting the document, parliamentarians pointed to recent research that refutes assumptions about significant energy savings as a result of changing clocks twice a year. In addition, changes in the circadian rhythm pose a significant risk to the health of people and animals, emphasized Czech MP Pavel Svoboda. He also pointed to data showing a 30 percent increase in the number of road accidents in the first week after the clocks were changed. The European Communities directive issued in 1981, as well as the EU directive from 2001, did not have the expected effect, he emphasized.

Survey among EU residents

Following the decision of the European Parliament, the European Commission launched a website in early July on which residents of EU countries could express their opinions regarding the transition to winter and summer time. At the end of August, Brussels announced the results of this survey. About 84 percent of the 4.6 million people voted. Most of them said they would prefer to keep daylight saving time. Moreover, about two-thirds of the survey participants (three million people) were residents of Germany.

After this, the Chairman of the European Commission proposed canceling the switches in 2019. “People want it, so we will make it happen,” said Jean-Claude Juncker. According to the plans of the Brussels department, on March 31, 2019, EU countries will mandatory switch to summer time for the last time.

Each EU country will make its own decision

And by October next year, each EU state will have to independently decide whether it will remain in summer time or switch to winter time. In any case, the relevant decision must be approved by the national government and the European Parliament. At the same time, the European Commission seeks to avoid a situation in which different EU countries will act for different times for fear of a negative impact on the internal market.

At the same time, it is already known that not all governments support the EU initiative. In particular, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa spoke in favor of maintaining the transition to winter and summer time.

In turn, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not yet expressed her position on this issue. German Economy Minister Peter Altmeier is a proponent of not changing clocks. "The vast majority of people no longer want to change clocks every six months, and most would like permanent daylight saving time," he said. German Health Minister Jens Spahn also said that he could well imagine a permanent switch to daylight saving time.

Three time zones in the European Union

Currently, there are three time zones in the EU: in Ireland, Great Britain and Portugal, Greenwich time operates; in Germany and 16 other EU countries, Central European time is one hour ahead; in eight EU countries, including Finland and the Baltic countries, Eastern European Time (two hours earlier than Greenwich Mean Time).

Since 1996, the European Union has had a uniform rule for the transition to winter and summer time; clock hands are moved forward an hour on the last Sunday in March and an hour ago on the last Sunday in October. At the same time, European countries began switching to summer time much earlier. In Germany, clocks began to be moved in 1980 in order to save energy, in a number of other countries - much earlier. The “standard” time in force before the decision to change the clock hands is winter.

In Russia, the clock change was abolished in 2011 on the initiative of then-President Dmitry Medvedev. In March, the transition to summer time was carried out, which it was decided to keep on a permanent basis. It soon became clear that in most regions of the country, summer time is inconvenient for people in winter, and as a result, in October 2014, the clock was once again moved back an hour. Thus, winter time is in effect in the Russian Federation.

See also:

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Zeitgenosse: Contemporary

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