Autumn 2023 has already been a reality since last Saturday.
There are about 88 days left until the onset of winter. However, before that we enjoyed the San Miguel summer and the season to pick mushrooms in the countryside.
Each day that accumulates now is also noticeable in the hours of light. The days are getting shorter faster as the cold waits to make an appearance.
With the arrival of autumn, the time also approaches to change the time and officially welcome winter time.
The time change in Spain will take place in the early hours of Saturday, October 28 to Sunday, October 29, at 3:00 a.m. (peninsular time). That will be the time to turn the clocks back one hour so that they read 2:00 again. “At 3:00 it will be 2:00 again,” as is often repeated.
It should be remembered that the time change occurs, in theory, with the aim of taking advantage of the hours of light during the winter, which serves to reduce energy expenditure, as well as to try to align the working hours of European countries. The antecedent of this position dates back to the First World War, when Germany set its clocks back to reduce coal consumption and several European countries, as well as the United States and Australia, introduced the same change.
In Spain, summer time was adopted for the first time in 1918 for economic and political reasons, according to an article published by the doctor in Physics Pere Planesas in the Yearbook of the Astronomical Observatory of Madrid. The decision was made due to the coal shortage caused by the First World War and to harmonize the schedule with that of neighboring countries.
The truth is that during the first half of the 20th century, official time “was applied discontinuously and with little consistency in dates”, first as a result of the civil war of 1936-39 and, later, the Second World War. , but after the oil crisis of the 1970s, daylight saving time was reinstated in many European countries – Spain did so starting in 1974 – and since 1980 it has depended on European directives.
However, several studies maintain that the time change hardly has an economic impact with new technologies, but it does have negative consequences on the health of many people. Thus, the European Commission announced in 2019 its intention to put an end to the changes definitively, so that each European country could choose which schedule it preferred for the entire year.
The European Parliament chose 2021 as the time when the new regulations would come into force, but since then the debate has been paralyzed by the health crisis of the pandemic or the current war in Ukraine.
Given the lack of progress in the negotiations in Europe, the Ministry of the Presidency published last year in the BOE an official calendar with the start and end of summer time from 2022 to 2026. For now, we will continue to turn the clock’s hands back and forth twice a year.