Hawaii

The Time Difference

Daylight savings time was introduced as an energy saving policy, making better use of daylight, shifting in relation to solar time. However, when the rest of the country falls backward and springs forward, Hawaii’s clocks remain unchanged (as does most of Arizona except its northern Navajo Nation region).

A majority of our visitors head west to Hawaii and find themselves very organically awakening early to birdsong and sunrise and inevitably earlier bedtimes with the body clock rhythms tuning in to the glory of early morning.  Coffee on the lanai, looking out to whales breaching, birthing of calves, and waves folding to the shore make for a blissful ease in to the day that lies ahead.

I remember the cherished weekend in autumn in England when the clocks would “go back” an hour and it was a celebrated “long weekend!”  Spring brought with it the “lost hour” and it was always sorely felt.

Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada introduced DST in 1908 albeit some credit and acclaim has been given to Benjamin Franklin who inseminated the thought with a letter to an editor of the Journal of Paris entitled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light” he suggested Parisians could reduce candlelight by getting out of bed earlier.

Hawaii observes Hawaii Standard Time (HST) year round.  Many of our clients come from “the mainland” or from abroad so oftentimes you will see on a time sensitive Purchase Contract for real estate, for example, 12pm HST, by which a response is needed, which denotes the time as it applies in Hawaii as opposed to noon time elsewhere.  In the case of California, during its “fall backwards” season of year, we are 2 hours behind.  Once March comes with the reset, spring forward hour, we find a 3-hour time difference to the Pacific Time Zone, or 6 hours to the east coasts’ Eastern Time Zone.

This is worth keeping in mind also when calling Hawaii or ‘phoning from Hawaii.  Celebrating New Years Eve in Maui means we see most of the world come in to the New Year before we do, England 11 hours ahead, New York 6 hours, all led by The Republic of Kiribati, a sovereign state of Micronesia, Kiribati’s Line Islands in the central Pacific which has the most advanced time on earth, a 24 hour difference to Hawaii.

With 37 different local time zones currently in use in the world, with 6 in the US alone, it is fair to raise your glass, adjust your inner clock and your watches, and relax in to what can likely be “5pm somewhere” when you vacation in Hawaii!

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Daylight Savings Time Year 2022:

  • Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 2:00 A.M.
  • Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 6, 2022, at 2:00 A.M.

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