Daylight Saving Time
Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. on March 8, providing more natural light in the afternoon and evening. For any of your devices that do not automatically change, you will want to set your clocks ahead on Saturday night, March 7, 2026.
While many look forward to more daylight hours in the afternoon, many people seem to be questioning the benefits of twice-a-year time changes (we “fall back” on November 1, 2026).
Who thinks of this stuff?
We can blame New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson for daylight saving time. He wanted extra hours after work to go bug hunting, according to National Geographic. In 1895, Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society, proposing a 2-hour shift forward in October and a 2-hour shift back in March. There was interest in the idea, but it was never followed through.
In 1905 British builder William Willett in his work, “British Summer Time” suggested setting the clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April, and switching them back by the same amount on each of the four Sundays in September, a total of eight time switches per year.
Willett’s idea was picked up a few years later by the Germans who used it during World War I as a way to save on coal use. Other countries would soon follow suit, most with the idea it would be a cost-saving measure.
President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation and Daylight Saving Time (DST) was implemented in the United States nationally on Mar. 31, 1918. It was a wartime effort to save an hour’s worth of lighting and heating fuel each day. It was repealed nationwide in 1919, but it continued to be observed by some individual localities in what Time Magazine called “a chaos of clocks” until 1966 when the Uniform Time Act made DST consistent nationwide.
In the United States, Daylight Saving Time previously began on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. In 1986 the U.S. Congress passed a law that, beginning the following year, moved up the start of Daylight Saving Time to the first Sunday in April but kept its end date the same. In 2007 Daylight Saving Time changed again in the United States, as the start date was moved to the second Sunday in March and the end date to the first Sunday in November. 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 October.
So what Should I Do?
Remember spring ahead, fall back and give thanks to the Lord at all times!
