S pain originally observed Greenwich Mean Time — the same time zone in which the United Kingdom and Portugal observe — but the clocks of the country were ordered to move forward one hour by Francisco Franco in 1942 to align its time zone to that of Germany when it was under the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler.
Spain to Change Time Zones?
Now the federal government of Spain is considering a move from Central European Time back to Greenwich Mean Time. “In Galicia, the country’s westernmost region, the sun doesn’t rise until nearly 9 a.m.”, according to this article written by Marcy Kreiter for International Business Times.
“Supporters of moving the clock back one hour say it would improve Spain’s weak productivity and allow for work and family life to better fit together”, according to this article reported by Blanca Rodriguez; written by Jesus Aguado; and edited by Angus Berwick for the India edition of Reuters. “Due to its time zone, Spaniards have long worked longer hours and finished later than in other European countries.”
If approved, the change in time zones is expected to occur either in March 2017 or March 2018 to coincide with the change to Summer Time in Europe in order to mitigate any disruption or confusion for citizens of Spain.
Summary
Some people claim that the time zone change could signal the death knell for the siesta — part of the Spanish culture of which many workers take lengthy breaks for lunch and do not finish working until 7:00 in the evening or afterwards — which may have been due to what has been called “permanent jet lag” since the change in time zones greater than 74 years ago.
Spain could become a more productive nation in general as a result of changing back to its original and “more natural” time zone.
I really had not noticed the effect when I was in Spain in October of 2014; but then again, that probably was not the ideal time of year to realize the effect that the Central European Time zone had on Spain.
As for Francisco Franco…well…I will leave the update of his health to this legendary special report…
Photograph ©2014 by Brian Cohen.
