Have you ever wondered whether people are lonelier in cold countries or hot countries?
It’s the last day of August, still blistering hot in many places. Fall seems far away.
How does hot weather make us want to connect to others? We looked into that in an episode of Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness.
It’s the Saturday before the last long weekend of the summer. Some of us are excited for fall. Many of us are also wondering why the last two months went by so fast.
The Saddest Day of the Year is the third Monday in January. It’s called Blue Monday by some, and there’s even a formulation for how the date was decided. It’s a combination of weather, the due date of our credit card bills from our holiday spending and the failure of our ability to keep our New Year’s resolutions. It’s the cold reality that we failed at budgeting, exercising, finishing our novels or thesis, eating better, and learning a new language.
There’s a version of Blue Monday in Denmark–called Bla Mandag and it has nothing to do with sadness. It’s actually a day for spending money and spending time with others. Blue Monday in Denmark happens in the spring when young people go shopping after their confirmation the day before on Sunday. Bla Mandag is when young people get together — they get the day off school — to go spend the money they received, head to restaurants, and celebrate. It is blue for the blue skies that emerge after a long cold winter. When we want to escape from loneliness, what we may be seeking is the warmth of another person. And when we’re feeling cold, we crave connections.
Temperature can regulate our loneliness and how we warm up or cool down is based on social interactions.
Painting: Jean-François Millet, Noonday Rest, 1866, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA.