Just a friendly reminder: clocks in the Czech Republic (and throughout the EU) will shift back an hour on Sunday, October 25, allowing us to “gain” an extra hour this weekend.
Be sure to set your clocks back in order to avoid showing up to work an hour early on Monday morning. The precise time of the changeover is 3:00 in the morning.
While the time changing is referred to as “winter time” in Czech (and other European languages), in effect it’s just the end of European Summer Time (comparable to Daylight Savings Time in the US) and the re-introduction of Standard Time.
However, Czechoslovakia did once have a real (and unique) “Winter Time” – and the law enabling the government to enact it is still (theoretically) on the books.
From December 1, 1946 to February 23, 1947, the Czech government set the clocks back an additional hour, to help performance at the country’s power plants during peak times. (More about Czechoslovak Winter Time here.)
The law enacting Winter Time in Czechoslovakia contained a provision that would allow the government to implement the change at any time in the future as needed.
In theory, that law would still on the books in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, meaning the current government could re-implement Winter Time as they see fit.