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Earth Hour is an annual worldwide grassroots movement uniting individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights for one hour, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time—whatever the local time zone happens to be—on the last Saturday of March, as both a symbol of commitment and call to action to protect the planet and its people. Held since 2007, in 2022 Earth Hour will be held on March 26.  

Turning off the lights does not mean you have to sit in the dark with nothing to do for an hour.  After all, this is a call to action. Use the occasion to celebrate this global movement with family and friends in fun, new, and interesting ways.  Here are some ideas: 

• Host an environmental movie night for friends.
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• Read an environmental book - perhaps a (auto)biography of an environmental champion like Rachel Carson or John Muir, or maybe a clean energy pioneer like Nikola Tesla.  
• Cook a candlelight sustainable dinner. Look for local, organic food.  And making the feast as vegetarian or vegan as possible will further cut down on the carbon footprint of the meal. As a nice touch, use candles that are made from soy wax, palm, coconut, rapeseed, or beeswax as they are renewable and clean-burning, and look for those produced with sustainable and ecologically balanced practices. 
• Take a hike in the community to take in the stars and see how others are celebrating Earth Hour.

Your activities do not have to stop after the hour has ended.  In fact, they shouldn't! Make any of the above activities a regularly planned event.  Or consider taking on some community projects such as cleaning your neighborhood, sponsoring a recycling drive, or establishing a farmers market.  

Have a safe and happy Earth Hour.