The January blues: we all have ’em.
Maybe it’s a form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and we’re all craving a bit more sunlight in the hope that it’ll warm the cockles of our hearts and give us some much-craved motivation… Maybe it’s the realisation that the magic of Christmas is over for another year (or at least, the more realistic, nine months!)… Maybe it’s the wall we hit after the drama of New Year and the clean slate and all of the expectations that come along with the midnight fireworks and purchasing of a new 12-month calendar… Maybe it’s all of these things combined… *shakes head in dismay*
The January blues are categorised as “not full-blown depression” but a “melancholy which looms over the entire month of January”.
When you think about it, it’s really no wonder: most people have to wait longer for their pay cheques to come in; it’s darker, colder, rainier and, tbh, there’s not a huge amount to look forward to. AND, to make matters worse, it’s really no surprise that the most depressing day of the year, known as Blue Monday*, falls in January (this year it was the 15th!).
*Nope, not the New Order song. Absolute tune.
This leads many of us to feel down, desolate even– the New Year’s resolutions we made may keep us going for a short time, but more often than not they are lost in the fog of January.
HOWEVER, believe it or not, the concept of Blue Monday (or even just Blue January) is not a new one; historians believe the concept has been around since Victorian times (that’s referring to the Victorian era, so when Queen Vic was on the throne, so 1837-1901).
Traditionally, in literature of the 1830s, Blue Monday referred to “the hungover state of the labour workforce after a weekend spent drinking”, and the association of the colour blue with a depressed state of mind (and, more generally, the working class!). In the 1860s, the term began to be applied, more specifically, to all mondays in the month of January, in which most labourers found themselves at risk of being out of work due to the tightening of pockets of their bosses following the expensive festive period.
If you found yourself in this situation, out of work in January, it wouldn’t be uncommon to say you’ve “got the morbs”.
Topics include, but are not limited to: slang, being jammy, temporary melancholy, and parrots.