Why are clocks set forward in the spring? Thank wars, confusion and a hunger for sunlight

DALLAS– Publishing at 1:01 AM ET. on Thursday, March 7. Edited by tanthony.

Once again, most Americans will set their clocks forward an hour this weekend, which may mean losing a little sleep but gaining more glorious sunlight in the evenings as the days warm up in the summer.

However, where did this all come from?

How we came to turn the clock forward in the spring and turn it back again in the fall is a story that spans more than a century – a story driven by two world wars, sometimes mass confusion and a human longing to lie in the sun for as long as possible.

There has been much debate about this practice, but about 70 countries – about 40% of countries around the world – currently use what Americans call daylight saving time.

While moving the clock forward “shocks our system a bit,” the extra daylight gets people outside, exercising and having fun, says Anne Buckle, web editor at timeanddate.com, which covers time, time zones and astronomy.

“The really great benefit is the clear evenings, right?” she says. “It basically means you have hours of daylight after you get home from work to spend time with your family or activities. And that’s wonderful.”

Here are some things you need to know so that you become familiar with the practice of people changing the time:

In the 1890s, George Vernon Hudson, an astronomer and entomologist in New Zealand, proposed a time shift in spring and autumn to increase daylight. And in the early 20th century, British homebuilder William Willett, concerned about people not enjoying morning sunlight, made a similar effort. But neither proposal gained enough traction to be implemented.

Germany began using daylight saving time during World War I with the idea that it would save energy. Other countries, including the United States, soon followed suit. During World War II, the US reintroduced a so-called “wartime” system across the country, this time year-round.

Today, every state in the United States except Hawaii and Arizona observes daylight saving time. Around the world, Europe, much of Canada and some of Australia are also implementing it, while Russia and Asia are currently not.

After World War II, a patchwork of timekeeping emerged in the United States, with some areas using daylight saving time and others leaving it in the background.

“Maybe one city has daylight saving time, the neighboring city may have daylight saving time, but it starts and ends on different dates, and the third neighboring city may not have it at all,” says David Prerau, author of the book “ Seize the Daylight: The Curious and controversial story of daylight saving time.”

If passengers on a 35-mile bus ride from Steubenville, Ohio, to Moundsville, West Virginia, at any point wanted their watch to be accurate, they had to change it seven times while boarding and outside of daylight saving time, Prerau says.

That’s why Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which states that states can adopt daylight saving time or not, but that it applies statewide. The law also prescribes the day on which daylight saving time begins and ends throughout the country.

Confusion about the time change isn’t just a thing of the past. Chaos ensued in the country of Lebanon last spring when the government announced a last-minute decision to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month – until the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Some institutions made the change, while others refused as citizens tried to create their schedules. Within days the decision was reversed.

“It really turned into a huge mess where no one knew what time it was,” Buckle said.

Changing the clock twice a year causes a lot of grumbling, and there are often attempts to either use standard time all year round or keep daylight saving time all year round.

During the energy crisis of the 1970s, the US started using daylight saving time year-round, and Americans didn’t like it. Because the sun didn’t rise until around 9 a.m. or even later in winter in some areas, people woke up in the dark, went to work in the dark and sent their children to school in the dark, Prerau says.

“It became very unpopular very quickly,” Prerau says.

And, he notes, using standard time year-round would mean losing that extra hour of daylight in the evening in the United States for eight months.

In 1908, the Canadian city of Thunder Bay – then the twin cities of Fort William and Port Arthur – changed from the Central time zone to the Eastern time zone for the summer and fall, after a citizen named John Hewitson argued that this would add an extra hour. daylight to enjoy the outdoors, says Michael deJong, curator/archivist at the Thunder Bay Museum.

The next year, however, Port Arthur remained on eastern time, while Fort William changed back to central time in the fall, which predictably “led to all kinds of confusion,” DeJong says.

Today, the city of Thunder Bay is on eastern time and daylight saving time, which gives the area “just nice, warm, long days to enjoy in the summer,” says Paul Pepe, tourism manager for the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission.

Located on Lake Superior, the city is far enough north that the sun sets around 10 p.m. in the summer, Pepe says, compensating for the cold, dark winters. Residents, he says, tend to go on holiday in the winter and stay home in the summer: “I think for a lot of people here, with the long days and the warm summer temperatures, it’s like a holiday in your backyard. ”