The shortest weekend of the year, for most: Daylight Saving Time starts

Are you ready to experience the shortest weekend of the year? Unless you live in parts of Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands Northern Mariana Islands, Guam or American Samoa, the clocks go forward an hour on March 13 at 2 a.m. and we officially move to the summer schedule, also known as the Daylight Saving Time (DST).

First, know that most of the U.S. and Canada change the clocks twice a year. Once in the Spring, forward one hour, and then in fall we “fall back” one hour.

Some say that the original idea of Daylight Saving Time came from Benjamin Franklin in the 1700s. It might have come as a form of joke which he wrote to a local newspaper. This idea evolved through the centuries.

It was first established in Germany during World War I, the U.S picked it up around this time too. But it has not stayed consistent since then. Since World War I, there have been many conflicts about changing the time, with the federal government standardizing the time during WWII, and then reverting this after the war ended. In between wars each state (something cities along) had its own rules about the time change, which obviously brought lots of confusion nationwide.

Could you imagine the mess in travel? Imagine traveling through states in trains? How do you plan that?

As the transportation industry grew increasingly frustrated about all the time issues, Congress passed a law it's tenderizing DST time in 1966. In the 70s there was also a lot of back and forth about when the time changes would happen through the year.

The recent time change schedule was set in 2005 by the energy policy act of 2005. it says that daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday of March and ends the first Sunday in November.

Currently, there are several states that have tried to pass amendments and laws, some of which are still in the works, to make daylight saving time and stay through the year.

Are you team DST or ST? Let us know on our social media pages!