Rabat – Daylight Saving Time (GMT+1) will begin on Sunday, June 17, at 2:00 a.m in Morocco.
The decision is an implementation of Decree Number 2-13-781, from September 2013, modifying an earlier decree on changing time, according to the Ministry of Administration, Modernization and Civil Service.
When Ramadan falls in the summer, Morocco switches to the standard time before the holy month. The country then returns to Daylight Saving Time days after Eid Al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Morocco celebrated Eid Al-Fitr on Friday, June 15.
The first day of Shawwal marks Eid Al-Fitr.
The North African country also switches back to standard time in winter and turns the clocks forward again in summer for Daylight Saving Time.
The decision to implement Daylight Saving Time in Morocco did not please many Moroccan citizens. 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 Cabinet, however, did not respond to the demand of the petition.
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 World War I in the UK in order to give factories more daylight hours in which to operate, thereby aiding the war.
