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    • When is summer time? Halloween helped change the date.
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    When is summer time? Halloween helped change the date.

    Vaseline Posted on

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    After a long night of trick-or-treating and perhaps staying up late to enjoy the loot or attend a Halloween party, there’s a built-in reprieve: the end of daylight saving time means we can get an extra hour of sleep this weekend.

    It’s no coincidence that the time change comes after the holidays. Until about twenty years ago, daylight saving time ended on the last Sunday in October instead of the first Sunday in November, as is the case today. That would make sunset an hour earlier, meaning less daylight for children to go door to door.

    Daylight saving time aims to save energy by shifting the clocks for part of the year to better align daylight with the times of day when people are working or at school. When (and if) the clocks will change has been a debate for years, as lawmakers and advocates bickered over the schedule.

    Currently, the goal for many is to eliminate a disruptive biennial clock change, but lawmakers in the early 2000s came up with a different solution: moving the clock change dates by a few weeks.

    The plan, which was part of a bill passed by Congress in 2005 and passed in 2007, was primarily a way to save energy (extending daylight saving time theoretically meant less time in the evenings was needed for lighting). But it received support from lawmakers who expressed concerns about children’s safety on Halloween, and from lobbyists who said the change would be good for business in their industry.

    Not only did daylight saving time end after Halloween, but daylight saving time also started two weeks earlier than before.

    Somewhat ironically, the US now says that only about four months of the year should be standard time – from early November to early March.

    A brief history of daylight saving time

    Daylight saving time was first introduced in the US in 1918 when the Standard Time Act became law to save on fuel costs, but was quickly reversed nationally after the end of World War I and was not brought up again until World War II began.

    From February 1942 to September 1945, the U.S. battled what became known as “War Time,” when Congress voted to implement year-round daylight saving time during the war in an effort to save fuel. When it ended, states could set their own standard time until 1966, when Congress finally passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized national time and established what we now know as daylight saving time.

    In the 1970s, summer time was temporarily reintroduced during the oil embargo crisis.

    How Halloween affected Daylight Saving Time

    After 1966, summer time was introduced from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. Twenty years later, in 1986, it was changed to start on the first Sunday in April instead.

    For years, lawmakers tried to extend daylight saving time even further in an effort to save energy. In 2005, this finally became a reality and summer time as we know it today was introduced into law. Now it lasts from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, especially until after Halloween.

    Aside from energy savings, lawmakers at the time said extending daylight saving time through Halloween would make the night safer for children. Halloween is still the deadliest night of the year for child pedestrians, research shows, but advocates say an extra hour of daylight for trick-or-treating would make a difference.

    RETURN: Ready for an extra hour of sleep? Summer time ends here in 2024

    On the other hand, some child safety advocates, including the National Parent Teacher Association, opposed the change because they feared it would mean more morning commute time spent in the dark, posing a danger for children walking to school or waiting for a bus. .

    Before the 2005 Energy Act extended daylight saving time, lawmakers more than once considered a Halloween Safety Act that tried to do the same thing but didn’t make it law.

    “Between energy savings, fewer traffic accidents and keeping kids safe on Halloween, there are many benefits to extending daylight saving time — not to mention the extra hour of sunshine in the evening that will help chase away the winter blues,” former Michigan Rep. Fred Upton said in a 2009 press release after the daylight saving time change went into effect.

    According to some accounts, the candy industry also had a role in extending daylight saving time.

    Michael Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time,” told NPR in 2007 that candy lobbyists “wanted to include trick-or-treating under daylight saving time, under the assumption that if children get an extra hour of daylight, they will collect more candy.”

    Senator Ed Markey, then representing Massachusetts, told the New York Times that energy and security were the driving forces behind the change, not the candy industry. And candy industry representatives denied the connection.

    Meanwhile, retailers said it would boost sales as people would shop more in the evening before nightfall.

    READ MORE: Beggars’ Night is held on Halloween day in Des Moines, Iowa for the first time since 1938

    Some now want permanent daylight saving time

    Several states have adopted measures that ensure that daylight saving time applies year-round. The only problem is that federal law prohibits it.

    States are allowed to have permanent standard time, which Hawaii, the non-Navajo parts of Arizona and some territories do. In order to implement permanent daylight saving time, Congress would have to pass a law that makes this possible.

    A bill that passed the Senate in 2022 but has since stalled would make daylight saving time the law of the land year-round. The Sunshine Protection Act was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Rubio and other proponents of permanent daylight saving time argue that the benefits include more time for outdoor activities or work in the evenings, and that this would save energy.

    Many experts agree that time changes contribute to health and even safety concerns, but some experts say standard time would be better year-round.

    “It is time to lock up the clock and stop putting up with the ridiculous and outdated practice of switching our clocks back and forth,” Rubio said.

    Vaseline
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