BEIRUT — The Lebanese government’s last-minute decision to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan caused mass confusion on Sunday.
With some institutions implementing the change while others refuse, many Lebanese are finding themselves able to juggle work and school schedules across different time zones – in a country that measures just 88 kilometers (55 miles) at its widest point.
In some cases, the debate took on a sectarian character, with many Christian politicians and institutions, including the small country’s largest church, the Maronite Church, opposing the move.
The small Mediterranean country usually puts its clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday in March, which is in line with most European countries.
On Thursday, however, the Lebanese government announced a decision by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to postpone the start of daylight saving time to April 21.
No reason was given for the decision, but video leaked to local media of a meeting between Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri showed Berri urging Mikati to postpone the introduction of daylight saving time to allow Muslims to fast for an hour during Ramadan can break earlier.
Mikati replies that he made a similar proposal, but goes on to say the change would be difficult to implement as it would cause problems with airline schedules, to which Berri interjects, “What flights?”
After announcing the shift to daylight saving time, Lebanese state-owned Middle East Airlines said the departure times of all flights scheduled to depart from Beirut Airport between Sunday and April 21 would be brought forward by one hour.
The country’s two cellphone networks sent messages to people asking them to change the settings on their watches to manual instead of automatic so the time doesn’t change at midnight, even though in many cases the time was advancing anyway.
While public entities are theoretically bound by the government’s decision, many private entities, including TV stations, schools and businesses, announced they would ignore the decision and switch to daylight saving time on Sunday as previously planned.
Even some authorities refused to comply. Education Minister Abbas Halabi said in a statement on Sunday evening that the decision was not final because it was not made at a cabinet meeting. If the government makes and approves the decision, he wrote, “we will be the first to implement it,” but until then, “Daylight Saving Time remains approved and applied in the education sector.”
Soha Yazbek, a professor at the American University of Beirut, is among many parents who now find themselves and their children tied to different schedules.
“Now I drop my kids off at school at 8am but arrive at my work 42km away at 7:30am and leave work at 5pm but I arrive home an hour later at 7pm!!” Yazbek wrote on Twitter, adding for the benefit of her non-Lebanese friends, “I haven’t gone insane, I just live in wonderland.”
Haruka Naito, a Japanese NGO worker who lives in Beirut, found that she has to be in two places at once on Monday morning.
“I had an 8am appointment and a 9am class, which will now be at the same time,” she said. The 8 a.m. appointment for her residency papers is at a government agency after the official time, while her 9 a.m. Arabic class is at an institute that is expected to switch to daylight saving time.
The schism has led to jokes about “Muslim time” and “Christian time,” while various internet search engines returned mixed results early Sunday morning when asked about the current time in Lebanon.
While the schism broke down along sectarian lines in many cases, some Muslims also protested the change, pointing out that fasting should begin at dawn and end at sunset, regardless of time zone.
Many saw the issue as a distraction from the country’s larger economic and political problems.
Lebanon is in the midst of the worst financial crisis in its modern history. Three-quarters of the population live in poverty, and IMF officials recently warned that the country could be headed for hyperinflation if nothing is done. Lebanon has been without a president since President Michel Aoun’s term ended in late October, as Parliament has not elected a replacement since then.