Daylight saving time began to be applied in Mexico in 1996 with the aim of taking advantage of more natural light in daily activities, since the days in the northern hemisphere get longer in spring and shorter in autumn. The main idea was to add an hour of light at the end of the work day by moving the clocks forward and then returning to standard time in autumn by moving them back, however, it remains in force only in some regions of the country.
As of 2022, this measure ceased to apply in most of the Mexican Republic after the approval of the Time Zone Law; the decree established a permanent standard time in the national territory, except for the 33 municipalities of the northern border strip, where seasonal changes are still made to synchronize with the United States and in states such as Sonora and Quintana Roo.
Daylight saving time in Baja California will begin this year during the early hours of Sunday, March 9, for which the clocks must be set forward one hour at 2:00 a.m. to enter the seasonal time.
Next Sunday, March 9, the municipalities of the border strip that must adjust their clocks according to the Time Zone Law published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on November 29, 2022, currently valid, are the following localities:
In Baja California, the cities of Tijuana, Rosarito, Tecate, Ensenada and Mexicali will make the change.
In Chihuahua, Coyame del Sotol and Manuel Benavides, Janos, Ascensión, Juárez, Praxedis G., Guerrero and Guadalupe will do so.
In Coahuila, Acuña, Allenda, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jiménez, Morelos, Nava, Ocampo, Piedras Negras; Villa Unión and Zaragoza. They will also adopt the seasonal time.
Nuevo León joins with the municipality of Anáhuac, while in Tamaulipas it will be Nuevo Laredo, Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Camargo, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Reynosa, Río Bravo, Valle Hermoso and Matamoros.
According to National Geographic, Benjamin Franklin was the first to propose a change of time in 1784, while he was serving as the United States ambassador to France. One morning, upon waking up at six and noticing the sun shining through his window, he reflected on the hours of daylight wasted while people were still sleeping and how, at night, candles had to be lit to continue working in the dark, so he decided to write a letter to the newspaper The Journal de Paris, in which he proposed energy saving measures, among which he mentioned advancing the time and published a treatise called Economic Project to Reduce the Cost of Light.
Although this proposal was not implemented, it laid the groundwork for what would later become the official time change almost 200 years later when, in 1905, the English builder William Willett took up the idea again. In his case, during his morning horse rides before breakfast, he noticed that Londoners slept for several hours while it was already daylight, so he proposed a time change during the summer, with 20-minute transitions per week to facilitate adaptation. However, his proposal did not prosper due to the complexity of the process, although it also contributed to the development of the concept.
It was in 1916 that the United States made the first official time change. This measure was introduced to save fuel during times of shortage, and two years later, the practice became a federal law for states that decided to adopt it.
According to the United States Department of Astronomical Applications, during World War II, daylight saving time was established nationwide between 1942 and 1945 to save energy, but after the war, its implementation once again depended on the states and localities.
To resolve the disparity that this caused, in 1966, the United States Congress enacted the Uniform Time Act, which established fixed dates for its beginning and end, although it allowed states to exempt themselves from compliance if they preferred.
The most recent change to the dates on which daylight saving time is implemented took place in 2007, as part of the Energy Policy Act, which established that clocks would be moved forward one hour on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November.
Globally, not all countries make time changes, however, it is common in most of North America, Europe, New Zealand and some regions of the Middle East, although each place handles different dates for its implementation. On the other hand, most countries in Africa and Asia do not adjust their clocks, while South America and Australia are divided in their implementation.
Source: infobae
