According to Boston University, nearly 10 million people are affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (more commonly called seasonal depression). SAD is a sort of depression more connected to the change in seasons than to events occurring in people’s lives. While the symptoms are similar to traditional depression, they tend to dissipate after a few months, usually spanning from the beginning of winter to the beginning of spring. While there are many explanations for why this phenomenon occurs, like dysfunctional circadian rhythms and reduced vitamin D, there is also one factor not typically considered: most of the winter consists of awful months.
But why are the winter months so terrible that they plunge people into despair? Moreover, what makes other months better?
To discuss what month is the best, we should first establish what makes a month good. One of the easiest criteria to use is weather. Unpleasant weather of any kind is bound to give a month a bad reputation. By this logic, it’s extremely easy to see why winter causes depression much more than any other season; the climate is just awful. Obviously, it’s brutally cold, especially after the new year. Winter is also famous for its constant and depressing frigid rain. While the precipitation might turn other areas of the world into a snowy wonderland, here in the Bay Area it just gets everything wet. The constant barrage of just-above-freezing water, combined with the almost interminable cloudiness make months like January and February just a depressing slog to begin the year.
However, as frustrating as cold weather is, hot weather can be just as infuriating. June and July are aggravatingly scorching, and they come with the added annoyance of people forcing themselves and each other to leave their homes and intentionally try to help the sun’s mission of exterminating humanity, starting with giving themselves heatstroke. And just due to weather alone, a third of our list of months can be eliminated for the title of best.
Another important factor in play are the holidays, primarily secular ones. Big holidays can have people excited throughout the entire month, so much so that some months are entirely defined by their festivities (possible spoilers for the end of the list). Because of this, March, April, and May can be eliminated for their shocking lack of holidays (the weather is also aggravatingly fickle; it can be rainy, windy, or sunny, all in the same week, and makes dressing correctly near impossible). Despite the weeklong break in spring seeming like a holiday, it comes right before AP season for many students and usually consists of cramming and compounding stress.
Surprisingly, though, we can use the criteria of holidays to eliminate a month that has the opposite problem as these three: December has too many damn holidays that don’t apply to everyone. While this doesn’t seem like a problem, the issue arises when you consider that all of the festivities are connected to selective cultures in some way or another. Christmas (Christianity), Hanukkah (Judaism), and Bodhi Day (Buddhism) are exclusive religious holidays, and while Kwanzaa and Yule aren’t technically associated with any religions, they are rooted in pan-African and Germanic/Pagan traditions, respectively. Thanks to the exclusivity of its celebrations, December can also be tragically knocked off of the roster moving forward.
With these two criteria, there are only four months left: August, September, October, and November. And while all of these months are good in their own right, they each have their own smaller issues. August marks the start of the school year, so it holds a lot of negative feelings for students and can’t really be considered the best. November is kind of a useless precursor to December, since the weather isn’t amazing and Thanksgiving is kind of a “whatever” holiday (Thanksgiving break excluded; however, at least to me, it never feels as satisfying as other breaks). And between the last two, I believe October just barely takes the win for its all-inclusive and much-beloved holiday Halloween and its weather being a perfect mix of cool and sunny.
“A good month is one where the temperature isn’t enough to complain about,” said junior Caleb Pizzaro. “Enough happens for life to be exciting without being mentally overwhelming.”
Obviously, as with most things in life, there isn’t really an objective set of things that make a month “good.” However, weather and holidays are often the defining factors in a month that people feel positively about, and following those rules, October is simply the most reliable and enjoyable month of the year.
