Chaos broke out in Lebanon on Sunday in connection with the Prime Minister’s decision to postpone the transition to daylight saving time for several weeks, as many are not following this decision.
Lebanon usually switches to summer time on the last Sunday of March. However, on Thursday, the government announced that Prime Minister Najib Mikati gave the order to switch to summer time this year on April 21.
Although the government has not officially announced the reason for this decision, the media has obtained a video recording of the meeting between Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in which the speaker can be heard asking the prime minister to postpone the transition to daylight saving time so that Muslims can end the fast of the holy month of Ramadan already around six in the evening, instead of around seven, as it would be if daylight saving time were introduced. The last day of Ramadan is April 20.
Mikati replies that it would be difficult because it would cause problems in the flight schedule. To which Berri retorts, “What flights?”
The Lebanese national airline “Middle East Airlines” has announced that until April 21, all its flights will take place one hour earlier.
State institutions have not switched to summer time, however, many private organizations and companies have switched to summer time on Sunday. Among them are several TV channels and private schools.
Most Christians have switched to summer time, and there have already been jokes about “Muslim time” and “Christian time”.
Of Lebanon’s 5.5 million people, 60% are Muslim, 35% Christian and 5% Druze.
