Despite efforts by President Trump and some lawmakers to end the practice of “Falling Back” and “Springing Forward” forever in the United States, for 2026 at least, Daylight Saving Time (DST) will soon “end” once again. For states that observe DST, we will turn our clocks back the first Sunday in November, and this year, that is the day after Halloween.
What is Daylight Saving Time (DST)?
According to timeanddate.com, “daylight saving time is the practice of setting the clocks one hour ahead of standard time to make use of more sunlight in the spring, summer and fall evenings. Daylight saving time (DST) (and note, it’s “saving,” not “savings”) is used to save energy and make better use of daylight. It was first used in 1908 in Thunder Bay, Canada.”
As USA Today reports, DST became a national standard 60 years ago, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act, which was established as a way to continue to conserve energy. The thinking was that if it’s light out longer, that’s less time you’ll need to use lights in your home.
We Live in a Time-Obsessed Culture
We live in a time-obsessed culture. What time is it? When’s dinner? How soon till I take my 30-minute lunch break from work? What time can I start trick-or-treating on Halloween? What time should I start my Halloween party? How many days or hours until we celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or Christmas?
And, of course, one of the most popular holidays of all time revolves around a clock — New Year’s Eve. Worldwide, we love that holiday so much, we dress up, drink Champagne at midnight, or watch a ball drop (in person, virtually, or on TV). So when we have to alter our schedules or time, it has a big impact on our lives.
Did Candy Makers Have Anything to Do with DST?
This has been a popular search topic: Did candy manufacturers have anything to do with daylight saving time changes?
An NPR report in March 2007 addressed the query during an “All Things Considered” interview with host Melissa Block and Michael Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time.”
“This may be kind of an urban legend, but I thought I had heard that one of the backers behind extending Daylight Saving Time into the beginning of November was the candy industry, and it all had to do with Halloween,” Block said in the NPR excerpt. “This is no kind of legend,” Downing responded, adding, “this is the truth. For 25 years, candy-makers have wanted to get trick-or-treat covered by Daylight Saving, figuring that if children have an extra hour of daylight, they’ll collect more candy.”
A 2020 story in USA Today also mentioned the Halloween-daylight saving time tie-in: “Lobbyists for the golf industry told Congress in 1986 that just one hour of extra natural light during the day would result in about $200 million in extra sales; the barbecue industry estimated that extra revenue for them would be around $100 million. The candy lobby wanted to benefit as well, claiming that one more hour of sunlight on Halloween would result in more trick-or-treating and therefore more candy purchases,” the story states.
In reality, it was the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that extended daylight saving time from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March (three or four weeks earlier than the previous law), and in the fall from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November (one week later than the previous law), according to a U.S. Department of Energy report. It went into effect in 2007.
Not Every State or Territory Participates in the DST Tradition
As of July 25, 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation noted that only Hawaii and parts of Arizona do not participate in daylight saving time. The Navajo Nation is the lone exception in Arizona. The territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands also do not participate.
According to the website, states may exempt themselves from observing daylight saving time by state law in accordance with the Uniform Time Act, as amended.
According to USA Today, 19 states await a decision by Congress to allow daylight saving time laws to go into effect. Sixteen of those states introduced 23 bills concerning daylight saving and standard time this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. They include:
- Alabama
- Colorado
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Montana
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Washington
- Wyoming
In case you’re keeping track, daylight saving time will begin (again) at 2 a.m. ET Sunday, March 14, 2027, for “spring forward.”
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Photo Credit: Stephanie Frey / Shutterstock.com
