With the majority of us relying on our phones or watches to tell the time, the clocks going forward or backward can almost pass us by without notice these days. Unless you have a pet whose internal body clock has no respect for European Union directives, that is. Or you’re Peter Hitchens.
European Summer Time always begins at 2 am CET on the last Sunday in March, with the clocks jumping forward an hour to make the most of the longer days. This year, that will fall on Sunday 29 March, aka this weekend.
This means it’s a perfect time (all puns intended) to look into the history of time zones, and some of the quirks the system has created around the world.
Time zones are defined in relation to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the zero point that follows the Prime Meridian. As the earth is a sphere (sorry, flat earthers) and so can be split into 360 degrees, and there are 24 hours in a day, the idea is that for every 15 degrees east of the Prime Meridian you are, you lose an hour, and for every 15 degrees west, you gain an hour.
As countries can decide their own time zones, that doesn’t necessarily match up with reality, however.
Spain’s ‘wrong’ time zone
Geographically, the majority of Spain falls within the boundaries of UTC+00:00, aka Western European Time, which is followed by countries including the UK, Ireland and Portugal.
Yet since World War II, Spain has followed Central European Time, aka UTC+01:00. This is because Francisco Franco changed the country’s time zone to align with Nazi Germany in 1942, and it has never been changed back.
In 2013, a parliamentary committee recommended that the move be reverted, but little progress has been made on making the change.
‘Resort time’ in the Maldives
Officially, Maldives Time is UTC+05:00, even as its closest neighbours, India and Sri Lanka, follow UTC+05:30.
Yet many Maldivian resorts choose to follow their own rules, with guests told to move their watches forward by an hour to UTC+06:00.
When the majority of your day is spent sipping a cocktail by the pool, diving among the corals or eating your way through the buffet, we suppose the time doesn’t really matter until you need to catch your seaplane or speedboat back to the capital Malé. But sunrise yoga certainly sounds far more appealing when it’s at 7 am instead of 6 am…
China’s single time zone
The third largest country in the world, China geographically spans five time zones from UTC+05:00 to UTC+09:00. Yet officially, it follows just one: UTC+08:00.
Known as Beijing Time, the single time zone was adopted in 1949 after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
With around 94% of China’s population living in the east of the country, the difference between the “correct” time and Beijing Time isn’t that noticeable for the majority. Yet for those living in the west, the difference is stark: Were you to pass from the region of Xinjiang into Afghanistan, you would gain three and a half hours.
To counteract this, many in Xinjiang follow both Ürümqi Time (UTC+06:00) and Beijing Time. So if you ask someone on the street what time it is, don’t be surprised if you get two answers.
Nepal’s 45-minute offset
The majority of countries around the world follow hourly offsets from UTC. A few have 30-minute offsets. Nepal is one of just three places to have a 45-minute offset, at UTC+05:45.
Historically, the country used local mean time (a version of solar time, which looks at when the sun is at its highest point in the sky, that has been corrected to be uniform throughout the year) based on the capital Kathmandu, which was UTC+05:41:16 – so the 45-minute offset isn’t totally random. Other countries that previously used mean time include Ireland, which used UTC-00:25:21 until 1916.
Another fun fact for you: Nepal also has its own calendar, Vikram Samvat, which is ahead of the Gregorian calendar by 56-57 years, depending on the time of year.
Australia: The final boss of daylight savings time
State governments in Australia decide which time zone to follow, and whether or not to observe daylight savings time. With six states and a number of internal and external territories, things can get… complicated.
Western Australia follows UTC+08:00 year-round. The Northern Territory and South Australia are on UTC+9:30, with the latter going to UTC+10:30 during daylight saving time. Queensland, New South Wales, Jervis Bay Territory, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania are on UTC+10:00, but during daylight saving time, all except Queensland move to UTC+11:00.
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are on UTC+06:30, while Christmas Island is on UTC+07:00, with neither observing daylight savings time. Norfolk Island is on UTC+11:00, moving to UTC+12:00 during daylight savings time.
There are also some anomalies, like Broken Hill near the border with South Australia in New South Wales, which use different time zones, but to write about all of those would far exceed my word count and patience.
Arizona and Hawaii’s rejection of daylight savings time
In the US, 48 states follow daylight savings time, moving the clocks forward an hour on the second Sunday in March before moving them back again on the first Sunday in November.
The only two that don’t? Arizona and Hawaii.
While Arizona has observed daylight savings time in the past, the hot desert climate means that it makes more sense for people to be up earlier when it is cooler. The Navajo Nation is the exception as its territory spans multiple states that do follow daylight savings time.
As for Hawaii, the islands lie close to the equator and so the variation between sunrise and sunset times throughout the year is very small anyway.
US territories including Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands also do not follow DST.
Travelling 24 hours in 200km from American Samoa to Samoa
The international date line, which is on the complete opposite side of the planet to the Prime Meridian, marks the point where one calendar ends and the other begins – aka where UTC-12:00 and UTC+12:00 meet.
Found in the Pacific Ocean, the line isn’t straight as some countries and territories may choose which side of the date line they want to be in.
For example, Samoa decided to move from one side to the other at the end of 2011, which means that it is now a day ahead of American Samoa, despite being only 200 kilometres away. The decision to move was made because the country has closer ties to Australia and New Zealand over the US.
