The funny thing about working on a V2 and reorganising old content is that you end up unearthing old articles you’d forgotten about.
In this case, since August 2008, there have been articles about the difficulties and confusion surrounding the Moroccan-style time change. I’ve let a few slip by since 2014; even though there were problems, the system had become established. We had gradually got used to these four annual changes, to resetting our phones or computers, which didn’t update automatically straight away.
As someone who works a lot with France, it was a bit tricky; I had to explain our fluctuating time difference to my contact.
The switch to GMT+1
There was also the decision to change – not the time, but the time zone – “on an experimental and permanent basis” in November 2018. No return to winter time; alignment with European partners. A decision taken, as is usually the case in this area, in a rush.
Quite apart from the absurdity of the phrase, it didn’t go down very well with Moroccans. For some good reasons and some not so good ones… the one-hour time difference from the sun is undoubtedly harder to cope with in a country where religious life is governed by sunrise and sunset, and that is precisely why we change the clocks during Ramadan.
By the way, did you know? France, too, is in a ‘bad’ time zone, for the most part. It was during the Occupation, during the Second World War, that the Germans imposed ‘their’ time – Central European Time – on the French. At that time, people in France were living two hours ahead of the sun. After the Liberation, the clocks were only set back by one hour. France permanently adopted GMT+1, which does not correspond to its true time.
It is not the only European country in this situation. Since Europe has granted its member states a degree of freedom on this matter, Spain has been considering a return to a GMT that better corresponds to its longitude – a move that is therefore the opposite of that taken by Morocco.
Automatic programmes are no longer able to find their way around
As we continue to adjust the time for Ramadan, and as it is ‘customary’ to revert to standard time – whatever that may be – during the night from Saturday to Sunday following the end of Ramadan, and as Ramadan ended on a Saturday, in accordance with astronomical forecasts… …connected devices, such as phones and computers, therefore changed the time during the ‘following’ night, that is, from Saturday 24th to Sunday 25th!
Whilst the official date for the return to summer time (sorry, legal summer time – I get a bit confused myself) is the night of 30 to 31 May.
For those who no longer have a good old-fashioned mechanical clock (or a microwave timer connected to nothing at all), it came as quite a surprise. I saw loads of people asking on Facebook, “But what time is it?”
None of this would have happened if we’d stayed on GMT all year round, which would have meant we didn’t have to change the time during Ramadan.
But that’s fine – the hiccup caused by the time change is an annual event; it’s made up for the Ramadan soap opera we didn’t get this year.
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