On the night of October 26, Moldova switches to winter or standard time. Clocks will be set one hour backward. Thus, 4am on October 26 will become 3am, IPN reports.
American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin is often credited with being the inventor of Daylight Saving Time (DST). In his 1784 essay “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” he proposed to economize the use of candles by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning to make use of the morning sunlight. His project attracted the British authorities’ attention after a year of campaigning, but was adopted only in May 1916. The summer time was first used during World War I, by Germany and then by other European states.
Today, DST starts on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October. Industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that does not change throughout the course of the year. In contrast, an agrarian society's daily routines for work and personal conduct are more likely governed by the length of daylight hours and solar time, which change seasonally, due to the Earth's axial tilt.
The practice has received both advocacy and criticism. Putting clocks forward benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but can cause problems for evening entertainment and for other activities tied to the sun or to darkness. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, but the actual effect on overall energy use is heavily disputed.
