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Blue Monday is coming.

The Christmas decorations have been put away for another year and we are waiting for the credit card bill to hit the mat.  The dark nights that once were the perfect backdrop for those twinkling fairy lights are now just dark.  The scales tell their own story of excess over the festive period and I’m pretty sure I’m going down with whatever it is that is going around at the moment…and there’s a lot of it going around at the moment.

Yes its mid-January and some days it feels like its never going to end. But believe me there is good news…spring is coming!!

Ok that might sound a little too upbeat but let’s stop to think for a moment.  We’ve been here before.  Christmas and New Year have gone, and the Six Nations hasn’t started.  Its always like this at this time of year.

They have even given it a name. January 20th is officially this year’s Blue Monday. For all of the reasons already mentioned experts say that Monday is the most depressing day of the year.  Well when I say experts I mean someone who had something to sell you.

Many of our traditional days have their roots in the dim distant past.  Bonfire Night and Guy Fawkes trace that particular tradition back 400 years.  Halloween has been a thing for thousands of years, although it only seems to have been a big thing in the last few decades courtesy of our American Friends. Christmas is around 2000 years, although some might say similar festivals mid-winter go back even further and Passover and Easter are the original moveable feast depending on the spring equinox.

Other special days are more recent. Mother’s Day started in Virginia in 1908 when a lady named Anna Jarvis wanted a special service to remember her mother who had recently passed.  By 1910 West Virginia had adopted it as a holiday followed swiftly by the rest of the USA. Not to be outdone Father’s day soon followed with Siblings Day and Grandparents Day not far behind. The perfect opportunity to sell us Cards, flowers and chocolates. 

Call me an old cynic as I expect lots of these celebratory days were founded with the best of intent, but it wasn’t long before people saw the possibility of exploiting the best of intentions to sell you stuff. You only have to pop into the nearest supermarket to see that as the marked down Christmas stock slowly disappears with Easter eggs and Valentines cards now taking their place.

For me, one of the saddest days in the year is Black Friday.  Now I must confess I’m as up for a pre-Christmas deal as the next man but for me it’s a tragedy that we allowed ourblur traditions to be usurped by the Americans.  What was once an almost sacred Swansea day of celebration and hedonism on the last working day before Christmas has been hijacked by online companies.  At least we still have that unique Swansea day of celebrations…Beaujolais Day.

So back to Monday, or as it will be known this year Blue Monday. Blue Monday traces it roots all the way back to…2005!  The company behind the day said that it had used a special equation taking into account weather conditions and the timing of personal finances.  The equation also takes into consideration the shortness of the daylight hours which of course means that the Southern Hemisphere must have their own Blue Monday sometime in June!

The concept was published in a press release from a travel company called Sky Travel.  It is said that much of ‘the work’ had been done by a PR company who sent their findings to academics asking for their opinions on the study along with the offer, allegedly, of financial support for their work should they decide to agree.

Once the press release had some ‘academic’ support SKY Travel used it as the lynch pin in their marketing strategy to persuade people to think ahead, to dismiss the gloom with the prospect of a SKY travel holiday to look forward to later in the year.

Even if the research and equation doesn’t quite stack up anymore its fair to say that come Monday our media will be full of Blue Monday stories.

The thing is, whether it is scientifically proven or not it just feels right.  This week the weather has been a little better which has really helped but once the kids return to school post-Christmas and we go back to normal mid-January does usually feel pretty miserable.

One of the academics who put their name to the original research said it was ‘never their intention to make the day sound negative’ but rather ‘to inspire people to take action and bold life decisions’.  Of course SKY Travel hoped that meant buying a summer holiday as well.

Taking that at face value, what can we do to turn Blue Monday into something positive?

I finally decided to step on the scales this week and it wasn’t good.  So I have decided to start a new walking regime.  I had a walking regime before Christmas but with so many commitments vying for my time I got out of the habit.  The experts say regular out door exercise will improve your mood. I think they are right.

After weeks of Quality Street breakfasts I have finally reached the bottom of the tin.  I have decided not to replace them with other seasonal confectionary, well for the time being, and started eating more bananas!!!

Of course with all this talk of being SAD and Blue Monday at the back of my mind is the South Wales Derby later today.  If we lose it will not only be Blue Monday but Blue January and Blue 2025.  If we win then I’m sure I’ll see the clouds slowly melt away and wonder what all the fuss has been about.

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