Remember to “Fall Back” Saturday Night

As we begin the month of November tomorrow, daylight saving time ends and it’s time to “fall back”–turn the clocks back one hour.

Here are 10 interesting things you may or may not know, about daylight saving time.

  1. Although this event is often referred to as “daylight savings time,” (the plural form of “saving”) the the correct name for daylight saving time.
  2. Ancient civilizations including Ancient Rome and the Mayans, practiced a similar event where they would adjust the time to the sun’s behavior. Their lives depended mainly on agriculture, therefore the ability to predict and measure the sun’s activity was vital for their productiveness.
  3. In 1918, as the United States continued their involvement in World War I, the purpose of daylight saving time was to conserve fuel by reducing the need the use artificial lighting.
  4. Daylight saving time was not observed nationally again until World War II. But it was repealed three weeks after the WW II ended. Time Magazine called the affair to a “chaos of clocks.”
  5. Hawaii and Arizona (except for the state’s Navajo Nation) do not observe daylight saving time.
  6.  The U.S. Territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands remain on standard time year-round.
  7. Countries closer to the equator do not observe daylight saving time because they do not need it. Their daylight hours do not vary enough across seasons.
  8. Only about one-quarter of the world’s population, in roughly 70 countries observe daylight saving time.
  9. The cornerstone of daylight saving in the United States since 1915 is the Chamber of Commerce on behalf of small business and retailers. The Chamber presumed that if you give workers more sunlight at the end of the day, they would be more likely to stop and shop on their way home.
  10. Daylight saving time activates at exactly 2 a.m., and that most government mandated bar closings occur at 1:59 to prevent an extra hour of drinking.

Daylight saving time will end at 2:00 am on Sunday and we will begin a new daylight saving time on Sunday, Mar. 3, 2016.

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