Most people know that there are two times during the year when we must adjust the time on our clocks and watches. The phrase “Spring forward and Fall back” is what reminds us of this task, but how many people actually know what Daylight Saving Time is? Is it just a practice here in the U.S.?
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Daylight Saving Time is a system for uniformly advancing clocks so as to extend daylight hours during conventional waking time or “Standard Time.” Clocks are advanced one hour to gain the added daylight of summer evenings.
Since 2007, Daylight Saving Time has begun at 2 a.m. (ante meridiem) on the second Sunday in March and has ended at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November. Standard Time runs from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March.
Since most people are usually asleep at 2 a.m., clocks are usually set ahead one hour at bedtime the night before Daylight Saving Time begins (in March), and set back an hour at bedtime the night before Standards Time begins (in November). Efforts to conserve energy have also prompted the current changes of when Daylight Saving Time is observed. Prior to 2007, Daylight Saving Time traditionally ran from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.
Daylight Saving Time was first observed during World War I (WWI), and again during World War II (WWII). It was observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in September. In the intervening years, some U.S. states participated but on different dates with that of the federal government. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which provided that any state or territory choosing to observe Daylight Saving Time must begin and end on the federal dates. However, states could request exemption. In 1986, Congress passed a law moving up the start of Daylight Saving Time to the first Sunday of April, while keeping its end date the same. These dates changed again in 2007.
Currently, Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa are exempt, always on Standard Time and do not observe Daylight Saving Time.
The practice was first suggested in a whimsical essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. Later in 1907, an Englishman named William Willett campaigned for setting the clock ahead by 80 minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each during the Spring and Summer months. In 1908, the House of Commons in England rejected a bill to advance the clock by one hour in the spring and return to Greenwich Mean (Standard) Time in the autumn.
The practice of Daylight Saving Time is common throughout the world. Canada and Mexico generally observe Daylight Saving Time, except in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and in the Mexican state of Sonora. Several countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Germany and the U.S. adopted summer Daylight Saving Time during WWI and WWII to conserve fuel by reducing the need for artificial light.
In most of the countries of Western Europe, Daylight Saving Time starts on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in September. Member nations of the European Union, however, observe their “summer-time period” or Summer Time—a version of Daylight Saving Time—from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October.
Currently, Daylight Saving Time or an equivalent is not observed in Japan or by countries that border with the equator.
