Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan will switch to the summer time on March 29 at 04:00am, the State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents told Trend on March 19.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, clocks will turn forward an hour, marking the end of Azerbaijan winter time.

Since March 1997, Azerbaijan's Cabinet has been changing its official twice a year -- in the last Sunday of March at 04:00, clocks are moved forward one hour to mark the transition to summer time, and one hour back in the last Sunday of October at 05:00 to transition to winter time.

The practice was first introduced in Europe during the First World War. The idea was to take advantage of the longest summer days by gaining an extra hour of daylight and shortening the days in winter.

The concept was actually brought by American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin, back in 1784. He suggested that starting the day earlier in summer will save a considerable number of candles.

A few centuries on and the method still serve as a valuable energy saver, except that rather than candles we save in electricity.

However, opponents of time switching for two times a year have increased in number lately, which resulted in rejection of this regime in most countries.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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