Just as Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year, is celebrated in January, the opposite day is celebrated in June: Yellow Day, the happiest day of the year.
Origin of Yellow Day
The origin of this alleged happiest day has something in common with its antagonist, Blue Monday.
This “Blue Monday” emerged as a marketing campaign under a non-scientific formula created by Cliff Arnall, a professor at a center attached to Cardiff University. This same person, paradoxically, ended up joining the #StopBlueMonday campaign to banish the myths of this day.
This old acquaintance also crosses our paths again on Yellow Day, since to counteract the effects of pessimism and sadness of Blue Monday, he decided to find the ingredients with which to build an opposite day: the happiest day of the year.
Why June 20 is the happiest day of the year
But what are the reasons why it is June 20 and related to the color yellow?
The date chosen is the one that in the northern hemisphere marks the start of summer, with the consequent longer days, higher temperatures and, in general in the collective imagination, a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere.
Another ingredient for this happiness is to spend more time in contact with nature due to the weather conditions we have just mentioned.
It is also a period in which the majority of employees enjoy their vacation periods and, those who have them, receive their bonus payments.
And why yellow?
According to psychological studies, the color yellow is linked to positivity or joy as it is related to the brightness of the sun, which tends to generate greater optimism and vitality.
Although not everyone will agree with this positive association with the color yellow…
For example, in the theater this color is considered unlucky after Molière died after a seizure while dressed in this color while performing his play “The Imaginary Sick” in 1673 and collapsed on the stage with a coughing fit and convulsions, product of tuberculosis he was suffering from.
Advertising campaign and “formula” for making Yellow Day the happiest day of the year
As with Blue Monday, Yellow Day was also launched with an advertising campaign: in this case not for travel, but for ice cream.
Part of the marketing strategy for this campaign was to make the concept of the Happiest Day of the Year look scientific.
In this case, the formula is O+(NxS)+Cpm/T+He, these letters corresponding to terms related to what we mentioned earlier when we talked about why this date was established on June 20:
- O from outside due to more time spent outdoors and more of the day spent outdoors.
- N de nature for the most time spent in contact with nature.
- S to socialize because you spend more time with other people because you are less at home.
- CPM of Children Positive Memories due to the high number of childhood memories linked to the summer period.
- T temperature, increasing at that time of the year.
- I have holidays, linked to the proximity of school vacations and often also work vacations.
Yellow Day controversies
It should be remembered and clarified that this consideration has no scientific basis, and that the origin of Blue Monday is in the field of marketing.
One of the criticisms made of the choice of the date June 20 is that its choice simply links it to the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, since in the southern hemisphere the opposite is true: the days are getting shorter, and temperatures are dropping.
Another reproach to this Yellow Day comes from the excessively simplistic approach to a concept as complex and nuanced as happiness.
