Daylight Savings Time, Why?

“Daylight Saving Time” (DST) is a method of changing clocks twice a year to make better use of daylight. This year Daylight Saving Time begins on April 3rd, as it is the first Sunday of the April. The term Daylight Saving Time is used in North America, while in Europe, Russia, and South America the name "Summer Time" is used. The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time as it is commonly pronounced. 

Benjamin Franklin first proposed Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but it wasn’t until 1916 that several counties in Europe adopted the method. On March 19, 1918 the United States put forth an act to set standard time zones and set summer DST. The new method of time proved to be unpopular, and soon it became a local choice. From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law for Daylight Saving Time. This caused mass confusion and forced broadcast stations, railways and airlines to publish new schedules every time a town or state decided to end or begin DST. 

The DST controversy was even prevalent in the Twin Cites. In the sixties, St. Paul decided to start DST at the same time the majority of the nation did, while Minneapolis chose to should follow state law, which stipulated a later start date. This left a one-hour time-difference between St. Paul, and Minneapolis until later resolved with a unilateral time change. 

Soon, the inconsistencies with time throughout the U.S. grew unbearable, and congress decided to establish one pattern across the country. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 was signed stating that Daylight Saving Time began on the last Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. If a state wanted to be exempt from DST they would have to pass state law stating such.

In fact some parts of the U.S. did just that. Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, most of the Eastern Time Zone portion of the State of Indiana, and the state of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation) do not change their clocks. 

At nearly every session of Congress, a bill is proposed to extend DST through Halloween making it safer for the trick-or-treaters to be out at night. The period of DST has been challenged for political reasons as well. DST usually ends a week before Election Day, and more than once an extension has been proposed as a way to encourage greater voter participation. The logic being that more people would go to the polls in the evening if it was still daylight when they returned home from work.

Whatever your opinion of Daylight Saving Time is, for most people in the Midwest it is perhaps a sign that the winter is over, and summer is one the way. The bare white landscapes will soon be lush and green; the sun will be out when you wake up, and for a while longer when you get home from work. For midwest Daylight Saving Time could just be the cure for the winter blues many of us are in search of.