Spring forward, fall back...

It's ingrained in our consciousness almost as much as the A-B-Cs or our spelling reminder of "i before e...." And it's a regular event, though perhaps a bit less regular than the swallows coming back to Capistrano. Yet in those four words is a whole collection of trivia, facts and common sense about Daylight Saving Time. In 2005 and 2006, Daylight Saving Time began for most of the northern hemisphere at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April.

Time reverts to standard time at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. Beginning in 2007, Daylight Saving Time is extended one month and begins for most of North America at 2 a.m. on the Second Sunday in March to 2 a.m. on the First Sunday of November. The new starts and stop dates were set in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Daylight Savings Time - for North America and its territories - is NOT observed in Saskatchewan, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and by most of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona). "Other parts of the world observe Daylight Saving Time as well. While European nations have been taking advantage of the time change for decades, in 1996 the European Union (EU) standardized a EU-wide "summertime period." The EU version of Daylight Saving Time runs from the last Sunday in March through the last Sunday in October. During the summer, Russia's clocks are two hours ahead of standard time. During the winter, all 11 of the Russian time zones are an hour ahead of standard time. During the summer months, Russian clocks are advanced another hour ahead. With their high latitude, the two hours of Daylight Saving Time really helps to save daylight. In the southern hemisphere where summer comes in December, Daylight Saving Time is observed from October to March. Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) don't observe Daylight Saving Time since the daylight hours are similar during every season, so there's no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer."

Daylight Saving Time is a change in the standard time of each time zone. Time zones were first used by the railroads in 1883 to standardize their schedules. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus by McClelland & Stewart Inc., Canada's "[Sir Sandford] Fleming also played a key role in the development of a worldwide system of keeping time. Trains had made obsolete the old system where major cities and regions set clocks according to local astronomical conditions. Fleming advocated the adoption of a standard or mean time and hourly variations from that according to established time zones. He was instrumental in convening an International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884 at which the system of international standard time -- still in use today -- was adopted."

I guess you can call me a smart cookie, but hey, now you know that the date has changed for Daylight Savings Time, you have no excuise for being late for work. I'm on to you.
Teresa.