Happy Blue Monday – a day to have a wee nip and celebrate life

Snowdrops are a symbol of resilience and harbingers of hope, writes Susan DalgetySnowdrops are a symbol of resilience and harbingers of hope, writes Susan Dalgety
Snowdrops are a symbol of resilience and harbingers of hope, writes Susan Dalgety
It’s Blue Monday. Apparently the most miserable day of the year. Like most “days”, it was dreamt up by a PR agency as part of a marketing campaign for a UK travel firm, but it has now become a fixture in our shared calendar, like Black Friday or describing Wednesdays as Hump Day.

The premise behind Blue Monday is that three weeks into the new year we are all suffering from post-festive blues. The excitement of Christmas and Hogmanay has receded, leaving us hungover, broke and depressed. The weather is at best gloomy, at worst freezing, forcing us to crank up the heating or wrap ourselves in plush throws from Amazon. And if you live in a draughty Edinburgh tenement, you will have to do both.

Those New Year resolutions to stop vaping or lose weight have gone up in smoke as you cram another slice of pizza into your already full mouth. As for “dry” January, that ended in floods of tears on January 3 when you opened a bottle of Malbec by mistake, and couldn’t bear to pour its contents down the sink, so had a glass, or several. I will “go sober for October”, you promise yourself as you order a discounted case of reds on your credit card.

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Talking of which, you are so scared to check your banking app that you have switched off your phone, forcing you to use your credit card in the January sales instead of Apple Pay.

The bargain trousers you bought in M&S are too tight because of all the pizza and red wine you have consumed since New Year’s Day, but you can’t be bothered to take them back because you lack motivation, so they sit in their carrier bag in a corner of your bedroom, a dark reminder of your profligacy and gluttony. To cap it all, it seems like forever until your Greek holiday when you will, for seven marvellous days, be able to bask in glorious sunshine. No wonder today is Blue Monday.

But wait, there are snowdrops pushing through the dead plants in the back green border. Their delicate white petals belie their strength. Other more robust plants may wither in the face of freezing temperatures and lashing rain, but not snowdrops. They are a symbol of resilience, harbingers of hope. The first sign that the spring is on its way.

Snowdrops were my father’s favourite flower. He died in February, more than thirty years ago, and my siblings and I spent the days before his funeral scouring the countryside to gather little bunches of them to lay on his grave. The first snowdrops of the season are a poignant reminder of his love and his strength that guide us still.

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He would have laughed at the idea of Blue Monday and scoffed at dry January. Today instead, he would have poured a nip of malt – when my mother wasn’t looking – and toasted the promise of a new year. Even as the lung disease that killed him at only 64 reduced his existence to a chair by a window, he never lost his love of life. So happy Blue Monday – it’s a day to celebrate life.

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