Blue Monday (My Birthday)

My birthday is officially the most depressing day of the year.
(I KNEW IT!!)


Blue Monday (date)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blue Monday is a name given to a date stated, as part of a publicity campaign by Sky Travel, to be the most depressing day of the year.

This date was published in a press release under the name of Cliff Arnall, at the time a tutor at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, a Further Education centre attached to Cardiff University. Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre reported that the press release was delivered substantially pre-written to a number of academics by Public Relations agency Porter Novelli, who offered them money to put their names to it.[1] The Guardian later printed a statement from Cardiff University distancing themselves from Arnall: "Cardiff University has asked us to point out that Cliff Arnall... was a former part-time tutor at the university but left in February."[2]

According to a press release by a mental health charity[3], the formula is:




where weather=W, debt=d, time since Christmas=T, time since failing our new year’s resolutions=Q, low motivational levels=M and the feeling of a need to take action=Na. 'D' is not defined in the release, nor are units.

Arnall says the date was calculated by using many factors, including: weather conditions, debt level (the difference between debt accumulated and our ability to pay), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action. Writing about the calculation, Goldacre stated: ... the fact is that Cliff Arnall's equations ... fail even to make mathematical sense on their own terms.[1]

This date allegedly falls on the third Monday of January. The date was declared by Arnall to be 24 January in 2005,[4] 23 January in 2006,[5] 22 January in 2007,[6] 21 January in 2008,[7] 19 January in 2009[8] and 18 January in 2010.

Mr Arnall also says, in a press release commissioned by Wall's ice cream,[9] that he has calculated the happiest day of the year - in 2005, 24 June,[10] in 2006, 23 June,[11] in 2008, 20 June[12] and in 2009 19 June.[13] So far, this date has fallen close to Midsummer.