Rabat - Moroccans will turn their clocks forward by one hour (GMT+1) on Sunday, June 17, at 2:00 a.m., the Ministry of Administration, Modernization, and Civil Service has announced today.
Rabat – Moroccans will turn their clocks forward by one hour (GMT+1) on Sunday, June 17, at 2:00 a.m., the Ministry of Administration, Modernization, and Civil Service has announced today.
The decision is an implementation of Decree Number 2-13-781, from September 2013, modifying an earlier decree on changing time.
Every year when Ramadan falls in the summer, Morocco switches to standard time before the holy month of Ramadan. The country then returns to Daylight Saving Time days after Eid Al Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the fast of Ramadan.
Astronomers speculate that Eid Al Fitr will be celebrated on Friday, June 15. Astronomer and researcher Abdelaziz Kharbouch Al-Ifrani told Morocco World News today that the Shawwal (the tenth month of the lunar Islamic calendar) moon will be clearly observed on Friday from most Arab countries, including Morocco.
The first day of Shawwal marks Eid Al Fitr.
Morocco also switches back to standard time in winter and turns the clocks forward again in summer for Daylight Saving Time.
In 2017, a group of activists launched a petition calling on Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani and the Parliamentary Council to abolish the biannual time change and maintain Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The signatories wanted the government to issue a law indefinitely suspending Daylight Saving Time in Morocco. They deemed remaining on GMT “appropriate with the country’s geographical location throughout the year.”
A similar debate has been raised in Europe recently, as several member countries urged the EU to consider abolishing Daylight Saving Time.
Daylight Saving Time was first adopted during the first World War in the UK to give factories more daylight hours in which to operate, thereby aiding the war.
