Don’t forget to turn your clock forward!

It’s time to turn your clock forward and change to daylight saving time! Only a few people know where this custom originates from, and who were the first ones to turn the clock forward in the spring, and then backward in autumn, 24.hu writes.

In 2016, this important event will happen on 27 March, when all clocks will be turned forward from 2 am to 3 am. The first person who thought about turning the clock was Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but a hundred years later George Vernon Hudson had the same idea to save time. He also warned everyone that unless something is done in the near future not saving daylight is going to cost a lot of money and resources. The reason people before Franklin and Hudson probably didn’t think about messing with time, is that those extra hours were not needed as much, as it is for modern people.

However, in 1905 it was obvious that without turning the clock it’s going to be difficult to use as much time as we have if the sun goes down too early. In order to solve this problem and use as much daylight as possible William Willett made a complete plan, but his 20 minutes turn backs were too complicated, and it was only on 30 April 1916 that all clocks were officially turned back one hour, first in Germany.

As a result of the First World War almost all of the countries involved adopted this custom, and in 1918 the USA also did. After the war was over, everything was back to the way it was before.

It was not until one year after the death of Stalin that Hungarians turned the clock back, and continued to do so every year up until 1957. It was an accepted way to save time, because otherwise, it would have been impossible to achieve the desired agricultural goals.

For 21 years from 1958 Hungary did not turn the clock forward or backward, but from 1980 we do this twice a year to save energy, again.

Vg.hu calls everyone’s attention: with the turning of the clock and Easter coming up the schedule of certain MÁV (Hungarian State Railways) trains will also change. Trains will run according to the holiday schedule on Sunday, on Easter Monday according to the Sunday schedule, and on Tuesday every train will run according to the regular schedule.

Based on MÁV’s statistics, approximately 200 000 – 250 000 passengers choose the company during the Easter holiday. The busiest day is the last day of Spring break, and MÁV kindly asks everyone to use the option of online ticket buying and have their tickets in advance to avoid crowds at the cashiers. The company provides extra carriages during the holiday, especially for IC trains.

A couple of domestic and international trains’ schedule is also affected by the change: the trains going from Budapest to Szob and from Cegléd to Szolnok before 2 am will be delayed by maximum 60 minutes, to be adjusted to the daylight saving time. Those domestic trains which would depart between 2 am and 3 am will depart at 3 am.

The affected international lines are the Dacia international trains, the Corona IC, the Ister EuroNight (EN), the Kálmán Imre EN, the Beograd express trains, the Metropol EN, the Latorca IC, and the Traianus-Bononia IC. These trains are expected to reach Budapest and consequently their destination with a one hour delay.

The schedule of the Varsovia EuroCity trains, going from Budapest to Moscow through Warsaw, is also expected to change, because Russia does not change to daylight saving time.

Copy editor: bm

Source: 24.hu, vg.hu