From Sunday at 2:00 am the United States forward 1 hour its time spindle when the summer schedule enters, which allows more sunlight time in the afternoon.
Once again, most Americans will advance their watches for an hour this Sunday, losing perhaps a little sleep, but gaining more glorious sunlight at night as the days heat up and become summer.
But where did all this come from?
How we get to advance the clock in spring and then delay it in autumn is a story that extends over more than a century, a century driven by two world wars, sometimes mass confusion and a human desire to sunbathe during as long as possible.
There has been a lot of debate about practice, but around 70 countries, approximately 40% of those around the world, currently use what Americans call summer schedule.
While advancing the watches “shakes our system”, the additional natural light causes people to go outdoors, exercise and have fun, says Anne Buckle, web editor of Timeanddate.com, which offers information about the time, time areas and astronomy.
“The really incredible advantage is the bright nights, right?” “It's really having hours of natural light after you get home to work to spend time with your family or with your activities. And that is wonderful. ”
Next, some things are indicated that you should know so that you are familiar with the practice of humans to change the time:
How did all this start?
In the 1890s, George Vernon Hudson, an astronomer and entomologist from New Zealand, proposed a change of time in spring and autumn to increase daylight. And at the beginning of the 1900s, British housing builder William Willett, worried because people did not get up to enjoy the morning sunlight, made a similar effort. But none of the proposals gained enough impulse to be implemented.
Germany began using summer schedule during World War I with the idea that it would save energy. Other countries, including the United States, soon followed their example. During World War II, the United States once again instituted what was called “war schedule” throughout the country, this time throughout the year.
In the United States, all states, except Hawaii and Arizona, currently observe summer schedule. Throughout the world, Europe, a large part of Canada and part of Australia also implement it, while Russia and Asia do not currently.
Inconsistency and mass confusion
After World War II, a schedule mosaic emerged throughout the United States: some areas retained summer schedule and others left it.
“There may be a city that has summer schedule, the neighboring city can have summer schedule but starts and ends on different dates and the third neighboring city may not have it at all,” says David Prerau, author of the book “The Daylight is: The Curious and containing Story of Daylight Saving Time” (take advantage of the daylight: the curious and contentious history of the summer history of the summer time of summer time).
At one point, if the passengers of a 56 -kilometer bus trip from Steubenville, Ohio, Mouundsville, Western Virginia, they wanted their watches to be precise, they had to change them seven times when entering and leaving the summer schedule, says Prerau.
Therefore, in 1966, the US Congress approved the uniform schedule law, which says that states can implement summer schedule or not, but it has to be at the state level. The law also establishes the day the summer schedule begins and ends throughout the country.
The confusion about the change of schedule is not something of the past. In La Nación del Lebano la Past spring, chaos unleashed when the government announced a last moment to delay the start of summer schedule for a month, until the end of the Sacred Muslim month of Ramadan. Some institutions made the change and others refused while citizens tried to recompose their schedules. In a matter of days, the decision was reversed.
“It really became a great mess that nobody knew what time was,” says Buckle.
What would it be if we did not change the time?
Changing the time twice a year generates many complaints, pressures are often emerging to use the standard schedule all year or stick to the summer schedule all year.
During the energy crisis of the 70s, the United States began applying summer schedule throughout the year, Americans did not like. As in some areas the sun did not come out in winter until 9 in the morning or even later, people woke up in the dark, they were going to work dark and sent their children to the dark school, says Prerau.
“It became very unpopular very quickly,” says Prerau.
And, he points out, using the standard schedule all year would mean losing that extra time of daylight for eight months in the afternoon in the United States.
A wink to the first to adopt it
In 1908, the Canadian city of Thunder Bay (at that time the two cities of Fort William and Port Arthur) changed the central time zone to the eastern hourly area for the summer and the fall after a citizen named John Hewitson argued that this would allow him to have an extra time of light of the day to enjoy the outdoo Bay
The following year, however, Port Arthur maintained the eastern schedule, while Fort William returned at the central time in the fall, which, as predictable, “led to all kinds of confusion,” says Dejong.
At present, the city of Thunder Bay is at the time of the East and observes the summer schedule, which gives the area “Deliciously warm and long days to enjoy” in the summer, says Paul Pepe, tourism manager of the Community Economic Development Commission of Thunder Bay.
The city, located in the upper lake, is north enough for the sun to put around 10 pm in the summer, says Pepe, and that helps compensate for its cold and dark winters. The residents, he says, tend to go on vacation in the winter and stay at home in the summer: “I think that for many people here, the long days, the warm temperatures of the summer, are like a holiday in the backyard.”