By Sarah Murnane
It is finally autumn, meaning it is finally one of my favourite times of the year. As everyone knows, this is where we shine. This is the season of coffee, cookies and casseroles. Where we rewatch When Harry Met Sally for the hundredth time and break out the Gilmore Girls box set. The start of autumn also corresponds with the beginning of many articles on ‘cuffing season’. This is a theory that as the colder months set in, people tend towards pairing off into couples more often. Cuffing season has always struck me as an urban legend. Clearly made up by those who have no partner for couples costumes on halloween and no one to passive aggressively exchange Christmas presents with. Should you partake in such a phenomenon? One has to ask themselves, do you fancy them or are you just afraid of your impending loneliness over the holiday season?
The so-called scientific theory behind cuffing season states that as the months get colder and the days shorter, this causes an overall drop in mood. Therefore people are potentially predisposed to wanting human touch to combat low mood. Across the internet you can find multiple articles even linking the term cuffing season to seasonal affective disorder, where some individuals are made depressed by the change in weather through winter.
I guess there is something to be said for this, maybe in some primitive parts of our brain cuffing season makes sense. However, this could be said for all seasons of the year. Who wants to spend summer alone? We see articles about getting the perfect New Years kiss, and then everyone craves their summer romance by the start of May. In essence, cuffing season is but another way to sell articles based on not so sound foundations of reality found in dating magazines. If you are spending your September scrolling Hinge looking for someone to spend the winter months with, by all means continue, but be warned not to be influenced. If you have just been dumped and are feeling like you have to get back on the wagon for fear of turning into a cold, sad spinster this December, have no fear. You are probably twenty, young and beautiful and he was probably going to get you a Lush bath bomb for Christmas. Date to your heart’s content, but try not to feel any pressure with finding someone. The people you love in your life already are more than enough to fill your heart this season.