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We're not sure what day this was in 1986 at Wimbledon for Princess Di but she looks very, very bored. PA Archive/PA Images
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Today and 5 other days that make you go... 'Meh'

There’s no Good Friday drama and no Easter Sunday festivities – but this particular Saturday is just one of a few milestones in the year that really drag.

TODAY IS A bit of an odd one, isn’t it? In Ireland, whether you observe Catholic traditions or not, there is a sense of something different about Good Friday and Easter Sunday due to both the licensing laws and the festivities arranged around Sunday and Monday.

So if today is Nondescript Saturday, what are the other ‘limbo’ days of the year?

December 29

This is a completely arbitrary choice of day in a way – you could look at any date between 27 and 30 of December and wonder: What am I going to do with that?

Why is it useless? The Christmas fever is over and it’s too far from New Year’s Eve to feel like you should be celebrating. Many of us are back in work for a few days too. What’s to like?

First Monday in July

It’s NOT a bank holiday.

Why is it useless? Let me repeat: It’s NOT a bank holiday. We’re spoiled for bank holidays in the run of the summer (May, June and August) and then July has to go and ruin the expectation that we have a long weekend every month. There’s only one thing for it – the Government will just have to introduce a July Bank Holiday.

Black Friday

Americans are so bored by the Friday after Thanksgiving that they go nuts shopping instead.

Why is it useless? Firstly, it’s only in America (and we don’t get a holiday for Thanksgiving because, well, we don’t celebrate it). But it has echoes again of that midway point between Christmas and New Year when the winter sales start depressingly early in an attempt to get us to spend our way out of our boredom.

Blue Monday

It is supposed to be a scientific formula that the middle Monday in January is the most depressing day of the year. Basic maths has disproved that theory – and it is thought that the tag was thought up as a marketing wheeze to encourage people to book their summer holidays early.

Why is it useless? No, it might not be an actual scientific phenomenon. But precisely what does one do in mid-January when it is a far stretch between pay cheques and there is no official celebration to look forward to unless you get very excited about the prospect of making crosses from reeds on 1 February. The very definition of a limbo day.

1 September

This or whichever is the first day school children start heading back to class.

Why is it useless? Unless you are a schoolgoer or the parent/guardian of one, you will get the nagging sense that this day should have a sense of occasion to it – and yet, there’s nothing happening. Same goes for any day around Leaving Cert time if you’re not actually sitting the exam.

Is there any day YOU think is a bit of a waste of space? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section…

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