Here we are again, with spring at the gates and that small collective rite that accompanies us every year: the change of the time. In a few days, precisely on the weekend between 29 and 30, we will move the hands ahead, greeting the sunny hour and welcoming the legal hour.
It is not just a mechanical gesture to move a clock. It is a moment that tells a lot of us, of our habits, of our battles to capture every single ray of light.
The origins of the change of the hour
It all began in 1916 during the First World War. In an Italy exhausted by the conflict, someone had the intuition of saving energy by simply moving the hands. A small trick to better use natural light, reducing electricity consumption.
Since then, the legal time has become a kind of national appointment. The European Union, since 1996, has even standardized this passage, choosing the last Sunday of March for the change and last October for the return.
The awakening will be more difficult (but for a short time)
What really happens when we move the time? In the morning it will be a little more dark, it’s true, but the evenings will stretch, they will give that light that we all wait after months of winter.
However, not everyone welcomes this change with enthusiasm. Losing an hour of sleep is never easy, there are those who in the following days drags a little, who struggles to fall asleep, those who are more irritable than usual. They are the “side effects” of this spring rite.
We abolish or keep: the great debate
In recent years, the theme has become almost a national question. Abolish the gearbox? Maintain only the legal time? Or return to calendar hour?
There are those who dream longer days, with more time to stay outdoors, for recreational activities, for tourism. Immmmaginate restaurants with full dehors, animated squares late. A small miracle that could take place with permanent legal hours.
On the other hand, there are the skeptics. They speak of natural rhythms, of too dark winter mornings. They think of the children who would go to school in the dark pesto, the elderly who could suffer this imbalance.
Experts remind us that we are not machines, our body has its own internal clock, the circadian rhythms, which do not change with a simple shot of hands.
In the days following the change, it is normal to feel a little out of phase. Disturbed sleep, tiredness, swinging mood. Nothing to worry about too much: they are usually symptoms that pass in a few days.
An open debate
The European Parliament in 2018 tried to dissolve the knot, asking the Member States to choose. But an univocal solution still seems far away.
For now, we will continue this small collective rite. We will move the hands, we will adapt, and once again we will discover how an hour more than light can change our days so much.
Good change of time to all!
