Greece to switch to winter time on October 25

Greece will return to winter time on Sunday, October 25, 2026, when clocks will be turned back by one hour, giving residents an extra hour overnight.

Under the current European Union arrangements for seasonal clock changes, clocks will be moved from 4:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. local time, marking the end of daylight saving time for the year.

According to Greece’s public broadcaster ERT, an official announcement on the implementation of the change is expected from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.

WHY DO CLOCKS CHANGE?
The idea of adjusting clocks to make better use of natural daylight dates back to 1784, when American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin proposed that changing daily schedules could help reduce energy consumption.

The practice was adopted on a wider scale during the First World War, when rising energy demands prompted countries to seek ways to conserve resources. Germany became the first country to introduce daylight saving time in 1916, followed by countries including the United Kingdom and the United States.

The practice was discontinued in several countries after the war but returned during the Second World War amid renewed energy pressures.

WHEN DID GREECE INTRODUCE THE PRACTICE?
Greece first experimented with daylight saving time in 1932, although the measure was not maintained permanently at that stage.

The country established the practice in 1975, as daylight saving time was increasingly adopted across Europe.

Since then, clocks in Greece have generally been moved forward by one hour in spring and turned back by one hour in autumn, in line with the seasonal time-change arrangements followed across the European Union.