Daylight Savings ends Sunday November 7, 2010

It is officially November and the time for holidays if fast approaching, so do not forget to turn the clock’s back an hour this Sunday and get an extra hour.

That’s right, this upcoming weekend much of the United States and Canada will be turning back their clocks to mark the end of Daylight Savings Time.  Sunday November 7 at 2 a.m. is the official time for us to set our clocks back an hour.  This time setting will stay in place until the second Sunday of next March.

So why do we observe Daylight Savings? Well the name, reveals more then we typically realize.  We do so in order to save daylight.

By “springing forward” in March and “falling back” in November, the afternoons have more daylight, while the mornings have less.  Nowadays, this is primarily done to save energy, but one of the original reasons back when it started in 1918, was to give workers more daylight to do work.

Other advantages of the added daylight include a decrease in traffic accidents, traffic fatalities, and crime rates.  Congress noted in 1986 while updating the legislation, “more daylight outdoor playtime for the children and youth of our Nation, greater utilization of parks and recreation areas, expanded economic opportunity through extension of daylight hours to peak shopping hours and through extension of domestic office hours to periods of greater overlap with the European Economic Community.”

Daylight Savings is not done by federal law, so there are states and U.S. territories that have chosen not to follow it.  It is important to note that Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas do not observe daylight savings.

Photo Courtesy of Alan Cleaver via Flickr