Daylight Saving Day Activities
- Cook a big breakfast! Whether it's your body's natural alarm clock or the annoying one on the nightstand, you'll wake up one hour earlier than usual. While you could use this hour to snooze, why not make the most of it? Spending the time to cook a big breakfast that breaks from the norm is a great way to create a new tradition.
- Get outside! Early November is a great time to see the leaves change and feel the crisp air roll in. You'll be up early anyway, so maybe this is your opportunity to go for an early morning walk or hike. Bring your family or reflect on a stroll by yourself, but whatever you do, don't let that extra hour of life pass you by!
History of Daylight Saving Day
Though civilizations have been changing their clocks to match the rise and setting time of the sun since ancient Rome, the modern Daylight Saving concept wasn't proposed until 1895 by New Zealand entomologist, George Hudson. He presented his study to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two hour daylight saving shift. He followed up with a 1898 paper after considerable interest was expressed from the city of Christchurch.
However, many publications and historians credit Daylight Saving to English builder and outdoorsman William Willet, who came up with his own solution in 1905 when he observed how many Londoners slept through a large part of a summer's day. Two years later he published his proposal to advance the clocks an hour ahead during the summer months. Robert Pearce, a Liberal Party member of parliament, took up the proposal and introduced the first Daylight Saving Bill to the House of Commons on February 12, 1908. However the bill did not become law, with several other bills failing in the following years.
Port Arthur, Ontario was the first city in the world to enact a Daylight Saving Time on July 1, 1908. Orillia, Ontario soon followed in the city's footsteps. Austria-Hungary and the German Empire adopted Daylight Saving Time on April 30, 1916 to conserve coal during wartime. Britain, its allies, and other neutral European nations soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year, and the U.S. adopted the concept in 1918. When the war ended, many lawmakers abandoned Daylight Saving with the exceptions of Canada, the UK, France, Ireland, and the parts of the U.S. It became common again during World War II and was widely adopted in America and Europe in the 1970s as a result of the energy crisis.