January's here again

Holidays are a funny thing in family history.  All those of a certain age generally have so many photos from our childhoods which are of holidays.  Virtually no-one carried a camera 24/7 like they do now.  So the camera was particularly taken on holidays.  The photos show groups of people gathered on beaches, up mountains, round tables, in boats, etc.  Doesn't life look marvellous, we think.

Yet holidays are like little bubbles in a lifetime.  There is nothing normal about them.  That's the whole point.  You are often with people who you don't get to spend much time with ordinarily.  You are plonked down in mainly unfamiliar places.  Eating unusual food and trying new activities.  Or maybe not.  Maybe all your family photos are of gatherings in the same place every year, with the only perceptible difference being in the ages/quantities of people.

Whatever your family albums show, unless your ancestors were pretty wealthy, it is only in the last century - but more likely fifty years - that people have taken holidays as we would recognise them.  We owe a lot to the fight for workers' rights, whatever our politics!  Imagine if 2017 people only got one day off per month, like many in domestic service did only a century ago.

Now taking a holiday will always be a privilege and goodness knows, there are far more people in the world who do not have that privilege than those who do.   But making good memories, however or wherever we choose to doit, is vital to our well being in my opinion.  The booking gives you something to look forward to.  The return, after the initial shock (!), gives you memories to sustain you until the next time.  No wonder January blues start to kick in on about the 27th of December.  The build-up to Christmas and then flat spirits and fat bodies descend.  

This week, everyone seems to be talking either about diets and gyms or holidays.  Or both.  Including me, clearly....