Again, Daylight Saving Time was used to conserve energy and fuel during wartime. In the Netherlands, the Germans advanced the local time by one hour and 40 minutes, changing the time in Amsterdam from “Dutch Time” to CEST. The practice was implemented again during World War II by the Germans, who spread it to many countries under Nazi occupation, including Denmark and Poland. However, they returned back to standard time after the war, with Daylight Saving Time relegated to a wartime phenomenon. Seeing sense in the idea, other countries across Europe began to adopt the same practice. This was two years into World War I, and the logic was to reduce the use of artificial lighting, to save fuel and energy for the war effort. The first countries to utilise Daylight Saving Time were Germany and Austria, who both implemented the policy on April 30, 1916. Various other regions in Canada soon followed their example, starting with Winnipeg and Brandon in 1916. Canada was the first to change the clocksĭaylight Saving Time was first actually implemented in a region of Canada, when the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario, decided in 1908 to shift their clocks to make better use of the daylight hours during spring and summer. Although there was interest in all of these ideas, they were never followed through. Later, in 1895, New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson proposed changing the clocks by two hours every spring, to give him more daylight hours to collect and examine insects. In 1907 British builder William Willett suggested implementing a clock shift to save energy. Then, after the advent of the pendulum clock and other more accurate timekeeping devices, in 1784 the polymath Benjamin Franklin proposed the idea of moving waking hours to align better with daylight hours. In a satirical letter to The Journal of Paris, he suggested people should wake up earlier in summer to save money on candles and lamp oil. The Romans used the flow of water to measure time, and their scales were adjusted throughout the year according to the position of the earth around the sun. It may surprise you to know that the idea of setting the time forward and back with the fluctuations of the seasons and daylight actually has a very long history. Where does Daylight Saving Time come from? Throughout the rest of the year, the CET time zone is observed in the Netherlands, which is just one hour ahead of UTC. During these months, the Netherlands is two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Like many countries across Europe, the Netherlands has two time zones: Central European Time (CET) and Central European Summer Time (CEST).Īs the name would suggest, CEST is observed between the end of March and the end of October, when daylight savings is in effect. How does DST affect the Netherlands' time zone? In 2023, this means the clocks are going forward on March 26, and will go back on October 29. These changes occur annually on the last weekends in March (when the clocks go forward by one hour) and October (when the clocks go back by one hour and daylight savings comes to an end). This means that twice a year, people across the country dutifully set their clocks forward and back one hour. Love it or hate it, the fact remains that Daylight Savings Time (DST) is also practised in the Netherlands. So we ask, why do we change the clocks twice a year, and will this practice continue forever? Daylight Savings: Does the time change in the Netherlands? It's been this way for so long that almost nobody questions it, but to expats who might have different experiences in their home countries, it can be the source of some confusion. Every year in March and October, people in the Netherlands and around the world set their clocks forward and back one hour.
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