Spring is here! (If you follow the solar calendar)

For anyone suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), the winter months can be a ghastly ordeal. The lack of ultraviolet light, and the corresponding dearth of serotonin, can lead, for many, to low mood, lethargy and outright depression.

Thankfully, there are various non-pharmaceutical solutions, including exercise, healthy diets, winter holidays in the sun and even the use of a SAD lamp (I have one on my desk). But the best of all is simply the passage of time, and the knowledge that each day, after December 22 in the northern hemisphere, is getting gradually longer and lighter.

Which brings me to the solar calendar. Unlike the meteorological definition of the seasons, which breaks them down into three-month chunks (with winter starting on December 1 and spring beginning on March 1 etc), the solar calendar looks at the seasons purely in terms of daylight hours. So the quarter of the year that we call winter, using this definition, starts roughly a month and a half before the darkest day (approximately November 7) and ends a month and a half after it (about February 4).

This solar calendar seems to me to be far more logical, especially for SAD sufferers. Okay, here in the UK, February is still likely to be cold, and therefore to feel wintery. But the fact that we are now out of the darkest quarter of the year gives a huge psychological boost. So, if, like me, you suffer from what used to be called the “winter blues”, please take comfort. Using the solar calendar, we are now officially in spring.