Even though in Spain is used the Greenwich Mean Time For reference, our country’s time does not match its geographical location. The Iberian Peninsula is located west of the meridian, which would make its natural time the same as that of the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. So why don’t we share the same time as them?
In the 19th century, in Spain, the Madrid meridian (located 3 degrees and 41 minutes west) determined civil time. Due to this geographical arrangement, each province had its own time, which resulted in a Galician and a Balearic Islander observing the sunrise at different times.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the government of Spain chose to adopt the official time based on the Greenwich Mean Time, known as “Greenwich Meridian Time” (GMT). It was at that time when the time was unified throughout the Spanish territory, including the Canary Islands.
In 1907, William Willett, an English builder, proposed the idea of setting clocks back and forth in spring and autumn. It would not be until 1918 that this practice was standardized internationally, and the “summer time” or “Daylight Saving Time” (DST) around the world.
The evolution of the time change in our country
In the case of Spain, the issue of the schedule has had a particular focus. During the early years of the Civil War, for example, the Republican and National zones used different schedules. However, at the end of the war, it was established a unified schedule.
The most significant change took place in 1940, when the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands adopted the “GMT+1” time zone, becoming in the same time zone as Berlin. This time adjustment is known today as “CET” (Central European Time).
The last modification to the Spanish time took place in 1981, when the time change was implemented on the last Sunday of March and the last sunday of september. Then, in 1996, the changeover from summer to winter time was moved to the last Sunday in October.
#time #changed #Spain #history #practice
