Daylight savings time begins on Easter

On the night of Saturday 30 March to Sunday 31 March, Belgium will be switching to summer time. At 2 a.m. on Easter, the clock will be put forward one hour.

Summer and winter time were introduced in Belgium in 1977, with the intention to save energy: summer time would allow people to enjoy daylight for longer in the evenings, thus reducing the need for electric light. This argument has since been refuted by many studies.

Strictly speaking, summer time in Belgium - with the exception of the Westhoek - was introduced once before, during the First World War, when the German Reich put the clocks forward one hour in its own country and in all the occupied territories in Europe for the duration of the summer. The reason then was also to save energy.

Biorhythm disruption

Opponents of summer time point to the disruption of biorhythms: according to the Vias institute, there are more accidents on Flemish roads in the first week after the changeover to summer time. It also causes confusion, because not all countries make the switch at the same time.

In 2018, the European Commission proposed to abolish the difference between summer and winter time. But member states never agreed on which of the two to choose. In June 2021, the European Commission said that there would be no abolition of summer and winter time in the "coming years".

^{PHOTO: Jeff PACHOUD / AFP}