I live in Cairo. The time changed before the month of Ramadan began on Saturday 22 August 2009. The actual date of the change was midnight between Thursday 20 and Friday 21, which was not expected before it was announced by the government this week. Prior to that, it had been expected that we would switch after the Islamic month of Ramadan toward the end of September. The reason for the change is that Muslims here fast (no food, drink, smoking or sex) during daylight hours, so this effectively moves the end of fasting every day an hour earlier. They will likely not continue this past this year, but for the past few years, they have switched the time from DST right before Ramadan for this same reason. The reason that this keeps changing is that the Islamic calendar and the gregorian calendar do not line up. Instead, because the Muslim calendar bases the months on the moon phase, the beginning date for each month (including Ramadan) move earlier each year. Again, this will likely not happen again after this year, but you can never tell. The Egyptian government might choose otherwise. No telling until very close to the date. J -- John D. Martin III john.d.martin.iii@gmail.com http://youcantmakemistakes.com +1.269.216.9126 (us) +20.16.558.5960 (eg) On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 17:00, Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) [E] < olsona@dc37a.nci.nih.gov> wrote:

I’m forwarding this message from John D. Martin III, who is not on the time zone mailing list. Those of you who are on the time zone mailing list, please direct replies appropriately.

John's message indicates a change at the midnight between Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22 while the current "Africa" file indicates a change at the midnight between Thursday, August 20 and Friday, August 21. Is there anyone with boots on the ground in Egypt who can tell us what actually happened last week?

--ado

From: John Martin [mailto:john.d.martin.iii@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, August 22, 2009 6:43 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: source file correction for tzdata (egypt end of daylight savings)

I am sending some info about the end of daylight savings time for Egypt in 2009. The line for 2009 for Egypt/Cairo in 'africa' within the tzdata source should read :

Rule Egypt 2009 only - Aug 21 23:00s 0 - Rule Egypt 2010 max - Sep lastThu 23:00s 0 -

The beginning of Ramadan has been used to determine the switch to standard time. In 2009 the switch occurred on 21 August at midnight or the third Thursday of the month. This will likely revert in 2010 to the standard time in the last week in September.

Thanks. J

-- John D. Martin III john.d.martin.iii@gmail.com

http://youcantmakemistakes.com

+1.269.216.9126 (us) +20.16.558.5960 (eg)