Daylight Saving Time

Daylight saving time starts in March when people turn clocks forward by an hour, so that they can enjoy more daylight during the summer months.

In Europe people set their clocks forward an hour on the last weekend in March and set them back on the last weekend in October.North America starts two weeks earlier and ends daylight saving time a week later than Europe.

Countries near the equator do not use this time difference because they have almost the same amount of daylight throughout the year.

Setting clocks forward started over a hundred years ago, when Germany became the first country to do so, in order to have more daylight for their war production . The United States adopted daylight saving time two years later.

For some years there has been controversy going on to end the time changes. Those in favor of having only one time period throughout the year say that setting the clocks forward in spring does not save energy, and setting them back in autumn causes more accidents due to a lack of sleep.

When daylight saving time starts clocks are set forward at 2 o’clock in the morning
Image: Daniel FR, SVG by Plenz, Public Domain