Why do we spring forward every year?

Picture Credit: Kenneth Lehtinen

Question: “Why do we spring forward every year?” – from a 5 year old in British Columbia

Answer: According to the experts at Time and Date, springing forward, and falling back, also referred to as Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a way of making better use of the natural daylight by setting our clocks forward one hour during the summer months, and back again in the fall. Many countries use DST to make better use of the natural daylight in the evenings. There are many other countries that do not follow daylight savings.

Based on an article produced by the CBC, daylight time was first enacted in Germany in 1915 (for energy conservation reasons). Britain and much of Europe and Canada then quickly adopted the practice.

In Canada, each province gets to decide whether to use daylight time, and not all do. Most — but not all — provinces and states in Canada and the U.S. have been moving clocks ahead by one hour on the second Sunday in March and back by one hour on the first Sunday in November.