The saddest day of the year?
This week is the third week of 2024. It began with ‘Blue Monday’. In 2005 Sky Travel, a UK company, labelled the third Monday of the year as the saddest day of the year. There’s no science behind it but it might have some validity it the Northern hemisphere and being at the start of year.
Blue Monday is a couple of weeks after the Winter Solstice, the day with the least light. After the Summer Solstice (usually July) the days slowly becoming darker, the sun setting seconds or minutes earlier. On the Winter Solstice (usually December) the sun rises late and sets early, the day with the least sunlight. After the Winter Solstice the days slowly become longer until the Summer Solstice, the day when the sun rises earliest and sets latest, the longest day of the year.
Although Blue Monday is after the Winter Solstice it is in the depth of winter. It is a dark day, playing into persons with Seasonal Anxiety Disorder. Whether it’s simply another winter day, a bad day, or another Monday, it can effect a mental health issue like SAD.
Another way Blue Monday can bring sadness is because it’s the third Monday after January 1. In 2024 the first Monday was January 1; the third was January 15. Some may have kept their New Year’s Resolution(s), some may have dropped them by now (or later this month), and some may not have made one.
Today inflation is being felt around the world; financial trouble can also play a role in making someone blue – receiving bills and trouble paying, upkeeping a lifestyle. Statistics Canada unveiled the December 2023 inflation rate in Canada; the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.4%. With rising costs of household goods and food, many will feel blue (or maybe just multicoloured exhausted).
The sky was blue on the night in parts of Ontario, Canada before Blue Monday. Some parts of the country saw a blue sky on Monday. Maybe Blue Monday has some truth.
The Nova's Rays 