10 things you didn't know about this weekend's Daylight Saving time change

Nov 3 2018, 6:38 am

Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend, so be sure to set your clocks back by one hour at 2 am Sunday, November 4 for the fall time change.

While we used to say “don’t forget to change your clocks,” our beloved smart phones will be doing all that hard work this weekend. Welcome to 2018.

Still, the twice-a-year event is the bane of some people’s existence, but for now it looks like that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

The history of Daylight Saving is as complicated as it is recent. So to help you to remember to change your clocks, here are a few things you might not know about Daylight Saving:

Credited to a New Zealand bug collector

George Vernon Hudson, a British-born New Zealander, proposed the idea of Daylight Saving Time in 1895. As an entomologist, Hudson treasured the daylight hours he had after work, which he used to collect insects. This lead to the idea of changing the clocks to allow for more daylight in the summer, which he presented in a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895. He even got a medal for it – the K. Sidey Medal.

Was first adopted in Thunder Bay, Ontario

Thunder Bay first adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1908, making it the first town in Canada to do so.

Adopted nation-wide by Germany and Austria-Hungary

The two European countries coordinated a nation-wide adoption of the practice for the first time on April 30, 1916.

The US added one more month… so Canada did too

Daylight Saving Time ended in October, until 1986 when they changed it to November. Both the Halloween candy and barbecue industries profited wildly – in fact, it lead to an estimated $100 million boost in grill sales since then.

Saw wide-spread use due to an energy crisis

Many countries began adopting Daylight Saving Time in the 1970s thanks to the global energy crisis – more daylight = less lights.

Saving – not Savings

While commonly called “Daylight Savings Time,” the official name for the practice is recognized as the singular.

The US was once on Daylight Saving Time for 15 months

In 1974, at the height of the energy crisis, President Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act, which put the U.S. on DST from January 1974 to April 1975.

Parts of BC don’t observe Daylight Saving

In the Peace River District (including Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Hudson’s Hope, Fort St. John, Taylor and Tumbler Ridge) the region is on Mountain Time and doesn’t set their clocks in the Spring and Winter. In the East Kooteny region (Cranbrook, Fernie, Golden and Invermere) the area is on the same time as Calgary.

Some places are on permanent Daylight Saving Time

Argentina, Chile, Iceland, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Belarus all permanently set their clocks forward in an effort to get more daylight out of each day to save on energy.

Some people want it gone

Many argue that the benefits of Daylight Saving Time are outweighed by the detriments, and want it gone.

But some leaders, such as BC Premier John Horgan see it differently. This week, Horgan announced that BC shouldn’t expect to see Daylight Saving Time gone anytime soon.

Anyway. Do your thing. Sleep, don’t sleep. The time will change this weekend either way, then we will all complain… and in six months we get to complain about it all over again.

Daily Hive StaffDaily Hive Staff

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