Lebanon has delayed the start of Daylight-Saving Time (DST) by a month, and will now set its clocks forward on April 21st instead of the usual last Sunday of March. It's unclear why this decision was made.?
However, a leaked video revealed that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged Mikati to postpone DST to allow Muslims to break their Ramzan fast an hour earlier.?
The decision has caused confusion, as some institutions, such as Christian churches, reset their clocks despite Mikati's announcement, resulting in schools, workplaces, airlines, and cellphone operators not following the same time.
While Greenland has decided to permanently stay on DST and will not set their clocks back in autumn. Officials of the Danish semi-independent territory in the Arctic believe that having an extra hour of daylight in the afternoons will provide them with more time to conduct business with Europe and other regions. The clocks in Greenland were reset this weekend to match DST, reports The Indian Express.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a practice of adjusting clocks to make better use of natural daylight during the summer months. This means setting clocks one hour ahead of standard time in spring and moving them back one hour in autumn, according to Norway-based Time and Date,?
The main purpose of DST is to conserve energy and make better use of daylight during the long summer evenings.
However, countries near the equator like India, which do not experience significant seasonal changes in daylight hours, do not observe DST. In these countries, there is not much difference in the amount of daylight hours throughout the year, so DST is not needed.
On July 1, 1908, the first Daylight Saving Time (DST) period began in Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay), Canada, when residents turned their clocks forward by one hour. Other Canadian locations soon adopted DST.?
The practice spread globally after Germany and Austria introduced DST on April 30, 1916, during World War I to reduce artificial lighting use and save fuel.
In the European Union, all 28 member states move their clocks forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October.
Advocates of DST claim that it provides longer evenings by setting the clocks one hour ahead, allowing individuals to finish their daily routines an hour earlier. The additional hour of daylight results in lower energy consumption.
Disadvantages of Daylight Saving Time (DST) include a higher rate of fatal crashes for up to six days following the transition due to one hour of lost sleep, according to a study by Popular Science magazine.