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Friday, January 4, 2019

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Opposition to Daylight Saving

Farmers: We may set our clocks back and forth, but that doesn’t change the fact that farmers have crops to tend and schedules to follow. They have to work the same hours regardless of the time on the clock, so daylight saving is mostly just a hassle for these workers.
Criminals: Many criminals rely on the cover of darkness, and adjusting our clocks so that we have more sunlight later in the day means criminals have a higher chance of getting caught in those well-lit hours.
Commuters: If you’re used to driving on the road at 6 a.m., come fall, you’ll have to set your clock back — which is essentially like driving at 5 a.m. Though this makes the evenings far sunnier, it makes the morning quite a bit darker until it’s time to “spring ahead” in spring. Visibility is thus an issue for early-morning drivers in the spring and late-night travelers in the fall.
Proponents of small government: Daylight saving is provincially regulated, so individuals who want minimal government power have cause for concern when it comes to daylight saving.

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Advocates for Daylight Saving

Energy: The energy industry sees some wonderful benefits because of daylight saving. All that extra daylight gives families much more time to see and do things outdoors, which means much more traffic and gasoline consumption.
Gardening, home repair, and leisure: Another popular way to spend that extra daytime hour is on home repairs and leisure. Gardening shops, home improvement retailers, and sporting goods companies all appreciate the bonus time for hobbies.
Professional sports: Daylight saving introduced a significant change to how Major League Baseball was played. In the days before stadium lighting, teams had to call it a draw when it got too dark. Adjusting their clocks gave these trailblazing teams more time to conclude their games.
Safety during winter months: proponents also argue that the switch away from daylight savings time ensures that kids aren’t walking home from school in twilight or dark in the afternoons during the winter.

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The Beneficiaries and Detractors of Daylight Saving

Daylight saving aims to give us the most possible daylight to work with throughout the year. By adjusting our clocks forward an hour in the spring and backward an hour in the fall, we’re trying to optimize our daily schedules to enjoy maximum sunlight. It’s argued that this practice boosts productivity and energy efficiency.

Despite what you may have heard, daylight saving wasn’t invented for farmers. Indeed, many farmers are outspoken about doing away with daylight saving. These individuals have to stick to their farming schedule, not whatever time we set our clocks to. So there’s not really a benefit to losing or gaining an hour of sleep for these professionals.

Plenty of other industries do praise the extra daylight we enjoy by fiddling with our clocks. However, it’s hardly a net benefit for everyone. Some voices are staunchly opposed to the practice of daylight saving, and some see great benefits to keeping it around. Here are some industries and enterprises that have shared thoughts about daylight saving time.

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What Is Daylight Saving?

The event occurs once in March roughly around the spring equinox and once again around early November — hence the expression “fall back and spring forward,” which refers to setting our clocks forward an hour in spring and backward an hour in fall. So you might look forward to the extra hour of sleep you get in the autumn but really feel tired come March after daylight saving costs you an hour of sleep.

This deprivation may even leave you feeling like daylight saving is a personal attack on your sleep cycle that we could do without. But rest easy – you could move to Saskatchewan, which technically observes DST all year round and doesn’t switch back and forth in spring and summer. So why exactly do we go through the trouble of daylight saving? And who does it benefit?

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Daylights Saving: Why Do We Do It?

Daylight saving might feel like a modern concept, but the concept actually dates back to the early 1900s. For over a century, Western countries have followed this concept to give people the most daylight possible in the fall and spring. But, is daylight saving a good thing? And will we always follow this practice? Some people argue against setting and resetting our clocks, so let’s take a look at the practice. 

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The Modern Holiday Is American

Well, Irish-American. The very first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held in Boston in 1737, as a celebration of Irish culture in the colonies. It later spread in popularity to Dublin and other American cities, and is now popular in other countries, including many in Europe and even Asia.

In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday and has been since the beginning of the 20th century, but the first parade wasn’t held in its honour until the 1930s.

In the mid-1990s Ireland began to use St. Patrick’s Day to promote tourism and cultural identity, some say to reclaim the holiday from the United States where it has become a bit tacky. Others in Ireland and even in the US are concerned that the holiday has become too secular.

Today St. Patrick isn’t much of a thought at all in our celebrations of the famous holiday. Mostly we drink Guinness beer and enjoy dressing like Leprechauns. Sure there is the traditional Celtic music, dancing and dress to provide some touches of authenticity, but those touches are largely absent in Ireland’s own celebrations. What St. Patrick’s Day has become now is largely symbolic, although it’s still a great excuse to have some fun while spending time with friends.

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Green Isn’t That Significant To St. Patrick

St. Patrick never wore green according to most accounts, but he did use the Irish Shamrock to explain christian symbols and ideas like the Holy Trinity to his followers.

The shamrock itself held meaning long before Catholicism made its way to Ireland, even in Druid rituals and stories. The significance was the three prongs, as three is a number with significance in Pagan traditions. Green was a colour associated with the shamrock and certain groups in Ireland, and in the mid-1700s it fell out of fashion.

Replaced by blue, the colour then most commonly associated with St. Patrick, it wasn’t until another group of Irish Protestants rebelled against the British and reclaimed green as their symbol. “Wearing the Green” came from a popular theme song for the rebellion and has been synonymous with Irish nationalism ever since.

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Saint Patrick Wasn’t Irish

In truth, St. Patrick was taken from his home, either in Britain, Wales or elsewhere, and became a slave to pirates for 6 years. When he was freed, he entered the clergy and later returned to Ireland as a missionary to begin his work.

While he was not in fact Irish by birth, he embodied the spirit of Ireland and a love for the country.

Somewhat ironically, St. Patrick was an immigrant to Ireland the same way so many Irish would later become immigrants in the United States, where modern St. Patrick’s Day was born

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Ireland Had No Snakes

One of the more popular myths about St. Patrick’s Day is that he drove all the snakes from Ireland after they attacked him during a 40 day fast. Legend said he drove all the snakes into the sea and that is why there are no slithering serpents there today.

We now know that there were never any snakes in Ireland. One writer hypothesized that the legends about the snakes actually served as a metaphor for Druidic symbols in Ireland, and of St. Patrick’s eradication of the traditions that preceded Catholicism in Ireland.

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It’s A Religious Holiday

Given the name of the holiday, it might seem obvious that Saint Patrick was Christian, but most people associate it with celebrating Irish culture, rather than Catholicism. Truth be told, that’s not where it began. Saint Patrick was a prominent bishop and missionary in Ireland near the end of the Roman empire in the mid to late 5th century AD.

Known as the Patron Saint Of Ireland and the Apostle Of Ireland, Patrick was instrumental in bringing the Roman Catholic beliefs to Ireland and in subsequent years, Saint Patrick’s Day became a day to commemorate Catholicism in Ireland. Originally, it was a day of feasting and celebration held every year on the day of St. Patrick’s death, although until the 1700s, the holiday didn’t exist in any formal capacity.

Over the years, there has been a great deal of mythologizing of St. Patrick in history.

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The History Of Saint Patrick’s Day

Most people celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day this March 17th won’t be aware of the true origins of the holiday, or even its true meaning. Aside from celebrating the Irish, the colour green and whatever shamrock shakes are made from, what is it really about? How did it evolve into the holiday we celebrate today?

We wanted to take a look at the history and evolution of St. Paddy’s Day and hopefully give you and your friends some great talking points when you enjoy that green coloured beer at the neighbourhood Irish Pub.

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Spring equinox celebrations

Many cultures around the world celebrate the spring equinox. Christians generally observe the spring equinox by celebrating Easter while people of the Jewish faith observe Passover at the same time. Many Pagans witness a celebration called Ostara which honours the planting of crops and the turn of the new season. 

In Ancient Egypt, the festival of Isis was celebrated during the spring equinox which focused on the ideas of rebirth and fertility, involving the myths surrounding the goddess Isis’ lover and brother Osiris (it’s complicated) and their story of separation.

Iran has their own version of “spring cleaning” through their celebration of No Ruz which honours renewal. Typically broken items are fixed and houses are cleaned to make way for a new season.

Many people in Russia celebrate a festival called Maslenitsa which happens before lent. Often people will eat many of the things that are not permitted during the time of lent throughout the Maslenitsa celebration while observing and appreciating the return of increased daylight and warmth.

Japan observes the equinoxes as national holidays which are meant to be about honouring family both past and present through big reunions and pilgrimages to the graves of loved ones who have passed.

Ancient Chinese folklore says that the equinoxes are the only days of the year when you can balance a raw egg on its end as the Earth is perfectly straight up and down. Regardless of whether or not this is true, this tradition is a symbol of fertility, good luck, and prosperity. In general, the spring equinox has always held significance for farmers and those who work with the Earth as it signifies a time of rebirth, growth, and change. 

If you have any suggestions for fun or interesting events or celebrations happening in the area, let us know on social media! Happy equinox! 

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The spring and the autumn equinoxes happen at the same time

Because our Earth can be divided into hemispheres that experience opposing seasons, one half of the world celebrates the spring equinox while the other half celebrates the autumn equinox. The northern hemisphere, which we in Canada happen to live in, celebrates the spring equinox this March while countries in the southern hemisphere, such as Australia, celebrate the fall equinox at the same time. This means that we always have opposite seasons!

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When precisely does the equinox happen?

Because the Earth is constantly moving, there is only one specific time each spring when the planet lines up precisely with the sun. And, interestingly, we say that March 20th is the day of the equinox, however this is according to Universal Coordinated Time, an agreed upon common time that is used all over the world.

If you are to celebrate the spring equinox collectively with the rest of the northern hemisphere and according to UCT time, the equinox will happen at 4:30 am on March 20th. But for us here in the Pacific Standard Timezone specifically, this means that we will technically be observing the equinox this year at 9:30 pm on March 19th because of varying time zones.

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