A January that can’t be cured alas just has to be endured

Probably, like the vast majority of the population in the Northern Hemisphere, I’ve never been a fan of January. For all the talk of it being the start of a New Year, it’s still the depths of mid-winter and January, unlike December, does not have the saving grace of a Christmas festival to distract us from the harsh reality of darkness, cold and storms.

While out the country we always consoled ourselves with the fact that January was a time when there was some light gain, often referred to as ‘the cock step in the dunghill’, it is a month that only grudgingly concedes a bit of darkness in its sunrises.

Even by Epiphany Day, January 6, our sunrises here in Galway are still only occurring around the 8.50am mark although there is some appreciable gain in the sunsets, now coming within 10 minutes of five o clock, as this weekend approaches.

While I’m always an advocate of not wishing our time away, I have to concede that in any year, I’m never felt any bit ‘brónach’ about seeing the back of January. According to US website legacy.com – their equivalent of RIP.ie – the death rate across the States for January is, on average, the highest of any month in the year

Even in latter years, it’s also credited with being the host month for the most depressing day of the year – the third Monday of the first month of the year.

A psychologist called Cliff Arnall, back in 2004, devised a formula (maybe rather frivolously) which factored in so many of the January ‘downers’ into the equation such as debt, monthly salary, time since Christmas, broken New Year resolutions, and low motivation.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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