Did you know we are approaching the end of daylight savings time this weekend? Do you know why we participate in daylight savings time? Here is the whole story about why we change time twice a year.

Daylight savings time has been around officially since 1908, but originated in ancient times. Ancient civilizations used different clock patterns for different months to conserve daylight time. In 1908 Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada turned their clocks forward by one hour and the rest of Canada joined later on. Most countries close to the equator don’t observe daylight savings time because their daylight times don’t change by much, and some states in the United States also don’t observe daylight savings time such as Hawaii and Arizona.

The reason we change times has to do with Earth’s revolution around the sun and the seasons. Since Earth revolves around the sun on a tilted axis, the hemispheres are in direct sunlight at different times of the year. For the northern hemisphere, we are tilted towards the sun during the summer months, and tilted away from the sun during the winter months. Earth’s tilted axis also causes a change in the amount of time the sun is out. We experience the longest hours of daylight during the summer months and the shortest hours of daylight during the winter months. To keep the amount of time during the day relatively the same throughout the year, we change our times back an hour during the fall and an hour forward in the spring.

This year’s end of daylight savings time or “fall-back time” is on Nov. 7. On the evening of Nov. 7, the sun will no longer set after 6pm. Get ready for some cooler weather too as we leave fall and enter winter. Don’t forget to change your clocks back an hour before you go to bed on Saturday.