Iceland

Iceland The name of the timezone in Iceland for system / mail / news purposes is GMT. This material is paraphrased from the 1988 edition of the University of Iceland Almanak. From January 1st, 1908 the whole of Iceland was standardised at 1 hour behind GMT. Previously, local mean solar time was used in different parts of Iceland, the almanak had been based on Reykjavík mean solar time which was 1 hour and 28 minutes behind GMT. "first day of winter" referred to [below] means the first day of the 26 weeks of winter, according to the old icelandic calendar that dates back to the time the norsemen first settled Iceland. The first day of winter is always Saturday, but is not dependent on the Julian or Gregorian calendars. I have a reference from the Oxford Icelandic-English dictionary for the beginning of winter, which ties it to the ecclesiastical calendar (and thus to the julian/gregorian calendar) over the period in question. the winter begins on the Saturday next before St. Luke's day (old style), or on St. Luke's day, if a Saturday. St. Luke's day ought to be traceable from ecclesiastical sources. "old style" might be a reference to the Julian calendar as opposed to Gregorian, or it might mean something else (???). The information below is taken from the 1988 Almanak; see