Child change when parent is hovered over - html

Question

I am trying to get a child element to change when the parent is hovered. I also want an attribute of that parent to change as well. I am trying to get the background color of #action to change and the color of the a or h1 to change when action is hovered over. Is this possible?
here is the html
<section id="action" class="general">
<div class="container">
<h1>This text</h1>
</div>
</section>
and here is the css. CSS is built using SASS that is why it is structured like that.
#action {
background-color: $bgLight;
border-top: 1px solid #252525;
-webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-moz-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-ms-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-o-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
a {
text-decoration: none;
h1 {
margin: 0;
color: $colorLight;
font-weight: 300;
text-align: center;
}
}
}
#action:hover a {
background-color: #76A7D1;
color: $colorDark;
}

Answer 1

Try this:
#action {
background-color: $bgLight;
border-top: 1px solid #252525;
-webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-moz-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-ms-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-o-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
a {
text-decoration: none;
h1 {
margin: 0;
color: $colorLight;
font-weight: 300;
text-align: center;
}
}
}
#action:hover{
background-color: #76A7D1;
a{
h1{
color: $colorDark;
}
}
}

Answer 2

You can do the same as #Alessandro Minoccheri suggested but in a less verbose way which I like particularly:
#action {
background-color: $bgLight;
border-top: 1px solid #252525;
-webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-moz-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-ms-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
-o-transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
transition: all 0.2s ease-out;
a {
text-decoration: none;
h1 {
margin: 0;
color: $colorLight;
font-weight: 300;
text-align: center;
}
}
&:hover{
background-color: #76A7D1;
a{
h1{
color: $colorDark;
}
}
}
}
The & within #action refers to the parent element, in other words to #action itself.
I like this approach because everything gets self contained within one style declaration and is less repetitive.
It is like saying: "... and when this element is hovered apply these styles to it, and these styles to a and h1".
One small comment regarding your markup #zachstames: a (anchor element) is an inline content element, while h1 (header of level 1) is a block element. According to the W3C specifications an inline element should not contain block elements but only data.
Hope it helps.
Cheers!

Answer 3

This is what you want? DEMO
You are able to make this:
#action:hover {
background: yellow;
}
#action:hover a {
background-color: #76A7D1;
color: white;
}
As you can see I repeat the use of the pseudo-class #action:hover. I'm saying:
"When action is hover, change it's backgroud AND when action is hover, change the background and the font color of the a element".
Hope I've helped.
Be good,
Leonardo