An Hour Too Early

On our way to church last Sunday, I was again my hurried self. It was already 10 to 12 when we left and I said to myself, we surely are going to be late. We were driving our usual route and always passed by a gigantic digital billboard where the time and temperature is displayed. I checked to see how late we already were and was surprised to see that it is still 11:10. Odd, I thought to myself so I asked Hubby what time it is in the car's clock. He said, 12:10. I thought maybe the clock was just wrong or I was mistaken in reading the time. At the back of my mind, I was thinking, perhaps the time adjustment already took effect. But I just brushed the idea off.

Then we arrived in the church at around 12:20 PM in my watch and I was really expecting that the priest has already given his homily. Much to our surprise, the church was very quiet, with only 5 people inside. Hubby then asked an elderly woman what time the service is going to be and she replied, "um 12 Uhr." I guess we were an hour early then.

I do know about the DST (Daylight Saving Time) but I didn't know when they would take effect. For the benefit of everyone, all European countries have DST or "summer time" as the British call it.

When DST starts in central Europe, clocks advance from 02:00 CET to 03:00 CEST. Here in Germany, DST starts on the last weekend of March. Weekends here end with Sundays.

When DST ends in central Europe, clocks retreat from 03:00 CEST to 02:00 CET. Other regions switch at different times. In a typical case where a one-hour shift occurs at 02:00 local time, in spring the clock jumps forward from 02:00 standard time to 03:00 DST and that day has 23 hours, whereas in autumn the clock jumps backward from 02:00 DST to 01:00. Here in Germany, DST ends on the last weekend or Sunday of October.

We learned all about it just recently and our body clocks are confused. I already feel exhausted and sleepy at 8:00pm and felt that I have overslept when I wake up at 6:00AM.

Tweet