Lebanon’s Government Confuses the Country with Time Change
Listen to the article (South African accent)
Every year, the people of Lebanon change their clocks one hour forward on the last Sunday of March. However, this year was different.
The Lebanese government delayed the start of daylight saving time by one month. It told the country to change its clocks on April 21, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, instead of March 26.
The government’s decision to change daylight saving time was announced on Thursday, March 23.
Because of the short notice, there was confusion in the country on Sunday. Some organizations followed the government’s instructions, and some did not. There were reports of people that had to cancel appointments because of the sudden change.
Imagine someone originally had two appointments, one at 10 am and one at 11 am. If the 11 am appointment didn’t change their clock and the 10 am appointment changed their clock one hour forward, the appointments were then at the same time.
Because of the confusion on Sunday, Prime Minister Najib Mikati decided to change the date of daylight saving to Wednesday night this week.
Mikati says the decision to change the date of daylight saving time to the end of April was to help people fast during Ramadan. Because of his remarks, the date change became an issue between religions.
Some Lebanese joked about the country having “Christian time” and “Muslim time.”
Some Muslims were against the original change because fasting for Ramadan should start at dawn and end at sunset.
Vocabulary24 words
- Delayed
- late; postponed; suspended; not on time; slowed down
- Daylight saving time
- a system of changing the clock forward by one hour during the summer to extend daylight in the evenings
- Muslim
- a person who follows the religion of Islam; relating to Muslims or the religion or Islam
- Holy
- sacred, pure, or related to religious worship; dedicated to god
- Ramadan
- the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, during which Muslims fast from dawn until sunset
- Instead of
- rather than; in place of; “not that, but something else”; substitute; alternative
- Decision
- a choice that you make about something after thinking about several possibilities/options; choice; ruling;
- Announce
- share information openly; to tell the public; to make a statement; to report
- Short notice
- only a short time before something happens; with little warning or time for preparation
- Confusion
- a situation in which people do not understand what is happening, what they should do; disorder; chaos
- Organization
- a group of people with one purpose; an agency; a society; company
- Follow
- to obey or to act as ordered by someone; to take direction or guidance from someone or something; to do what the rules or someone says
- Instruction
- directions or guidance given to someone to follow; order; directive; command
- Report
- a written description of an event; story; article; the results of a study or project
- Prime Minister
- the head or leader of an elected government of a country
- Decide
- to choose something; make a choice from many different options; select
- Fast
- to go without food or drink for a period of time, often for religious or health reasons; to not eat or drink for a while
- Remark
- a comment or statement; mention; to say something in response
- Religion
- A set of beliefs, practices, and values concerning the spiritual and moral aspects of life (e.g., Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.)
- Joke
- to say funny things; to say or do something for amusement or to make other people laugh;
- Christian
- a person who follows the religion of Christianity; relating to Christianity
- To be against something
- to go against something; to disagree; to oppose
- Dawn
- The time of day when the sun starts to rise; when the sun starts to come up
- Sunset
- The time of day when the sun goes down; when the sun goes down and you can’t see it anymore
Discussion questions
- How important is it for governments to give advance notice of policy changes like daylight saving time? Do you think there would have been less confusion with longer notice?
- How would you feel if you had to cancel appointments because of a sudden policy change like the daylight saving time change in Lebanon?
- Do you think the Lebanese Prime Minister made the right decision to change daylight saving time a second time and make it this week?
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