Due to the many questions we have received regarding the Almanac Hour and how this relates to the time in Europe, Sallie has written a short article on this. We hope that will clear up some of the confusion on how the almanac should be used in different time zones and the relevance of standard time and daylight saving.


Solar Time

The favourable and unfavourable hours shown in the almanac are calculated according to the Solar Hour which is determined by the position of the sun in any given place. This is also called the local meridian or solar time. Solar time can be measured by a sundial.

There are certain countries which, for reasons of convenience, use a time that is not technically correct for their location. For instance, Spain is within the 15º longitude of Greenwich Mean Time but its official clock is set one hour ahead to Central European Time (CET). Therefore, whilst the time is 0800 according to the solar hour, the actual time in Spain is 0900.

Readers of the Chinese Almanac in Spain should bear the above in mind and make the necessary adjustment to the hours indicated in the almanac so that they match local official time. This means that when it says 09:00 in the almanac, it is actually 10:00 local time according to the official clock. You have to add one hour to the almanac hour when applying it to Spain

For other countries, you will have to work out whether their official clock is set to the solar hour or there has been an adjustment on this for whatever reason. A good website for a world map with the different time zones is http://www.worldtimezone.com.



Summer Time or Daylight Saving Time (DST)

In the case of those countries which make an adjustment of the clock during the summer (otherwise known as Daylight Saving, DST), you will have to make the corresponding adjustment when referring to the hours in the almanac. The clock in Spain is moved forward one hour at the beginning of spring and back again in autumn.

The start and end date of summer time varies from year to year. Readers in Spain can follow the link below to have a look at the table for summer time changeover.

Summer time changeover in Spain

For example, the adjustment you would have to make in Spain in June would be two hours: one for the reason given in the paragraph “solar time” and one to compensate for the change to summer time. Accordingly, when the almanac says between 09:00 and 11:00, the official local time in Spain would be 11:00 and 0100 (1 hour extra for CET and another extra for DST).

I understand the complication, but it isn’t possible to adjust the hour within the almanac as the almanac is used as a reference worldwide. It took me a while too to get used to the idea of the hour adjustment when I first came to Spain

Sallie Tsui Sien
2009

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