There’s still snow on the ground all over Norway, but so-called “summer time” (daylight savings time) officially begins on Sunday. Clocks will need to be set one hour ahead from 2am.
“Now everyone will have the opportunity to sleep a bit faster on Saturday night,” joked government minister Torbjørn Røe Isaksen in a press release sent to news bureau NTB. “This is the government’s contribution to simplify, renew and improve our sustainable welfare state.”
Daylight savings time was first implemented in several European countries in 1916, as a means of getting the most out of the lighter time of the year. Norway, where the sun is up for the vast majority of the day during the spring and summer, didn’t always see a need to adjust clocks and has had periods both with and without what’s called sommertid.
Norway has followed the European standard since 1980. All countries in the European Union or, like Norway, tied to it through the European Economic Area (EEA/EØS) move clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday in March and roll them back again on the last Sunday in October.
newsinenglish.no staff
