Around the world, Daylight Saving Time (DST) happens every year in March and ends in November. This year, we will turn our clocks forward one hour at 2 am on Sunday, March 13. That means that there will be more daylight in the evening, increasing the opportunities to be outdoors and to save on electricity.

We will be able to enjoy this extended daylight until Sunday, November 6, when clocks will revert to standard time.

According to timeanddate.com, DST is “a seasonal time change measure where clocks are set ahead of standard time during part of the year.” Some believe that the idea of Daylight Saving was conceived by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 but others attribute the idea to a British builder named William Willett, who suggested it in 1907 as a way to extend the potential workday.

The purpose of DST is to allow people to make better use of daylight as we transition into summer. While it start in March and ends in November, it hasn’t always been that way. In 2007, President Bush had DST last an additional four weeks, starting it in early March and ending it November instead of late October. This was in an effort to conserve energy by having evenings that were lighter later, thus conserving electrical energy in homes and offices. Many European nations still honor DST by changing their clocks ahead two weeks after the Americans and parts of Mexico.

Some places in the US do not honor DST, including Hawaii, parts of Arizona, Guam, Samoa and Puerto Rico. For some of these places, it is because of their location where they get enough daylight throughout the year. Many countries north of the equator also do not celebrate DST, and most of Africa and Asia do not recognize it either.