What day is the Most Boring Day in 2024?
In the UK, Monday January 15th 2024 is the so-called Blue Monday. It is said to be the most depressing day of the year, as Christmas and New Year holidays are fast disappearing in the rear view mirror, and it is over 75 days until the next public holiday on Good Friday (March 29th).
Does that make Blue Monday the world’s most boring day of the year? It can’t be, as on the same day, America observes a holiday to honour the life of Martin Luther King Jr, and this year most of India will be observing an important harvest festival.
But hold up, just three days later, on Thursday January 18th, we have the first day of the year where no single country or region is taking time off for a holiday.
Thursday January 18th is certainly a stronger contender for most boring day of the year than Blue Monday.
But before we award the title of most boring day 2024 to January 18th, let’s take a look at the rest of 2024. Going month by month, there are currently* another six working days when no country or region in the world will observe a public holiday, meaning in theory, we are all working!
Here are the dates:
- Thursday 18th January
- Tuesday 30th January
- Thursday March 7th
- Wednesday April 3rd
- Tuesday October 22
- Wednesday November 13
- Wednesday December 4
So which of the above unmagnificent seven days wins the most boring day of the year 2024?
Let’s look at each date in more detail:
- Thursday January 30th. Martin Luther King Jr Day starts the week. The aforementioned Indian harvest festivals continue to the day before and the day after is Orthodox Epiphany.
- Next up is Tuesday January 30th. There is nothing of note happening in the calendar that week, and for our money, Tuesdays are more boring than Thursdays, so this is a stronger candidate than January 18th.
- It’s over a month before our next day without a holiday – Thursday March 7th. This Thursday takes place during a week that begins quietly, but is the eve of Maha Shivratri and International Women’s Day.
- Wednesday April 3rd – This first ‘humpday’ contender is sandwiched between Easter Monday and Ching Ming, so parts of Asia will be preparing for the festival, while some of us will still be working our way through our chocolate egg backlog.
- We have to turn six pages of our calendars before we encounter the next weekday without a holiday – Tuesday October 22nd. This day is a strong contender. There is an R in the month, which means that most of us are not otherwise distracted by summer holidays and it is a quiet week with no major holidays. This week does fall after the second Monday in October which is a very popular day for public holidays and it’ll be Diwali and All Saints Day at the end of the following week.
- Wednesday November 13 – This Wednesday is actually a respite between a slew of interesting holidays that take place on the Monday and the Friday of that week.
- Our final contender falls on Wednesday December 4th. Traditionally this is a quiet period for holidays before the juggernaut of Christmas ends the month, but there are enough notable holidays such as the national days of Lao, Thailand, UAE and Myanmar surrounding this day, that this day won’t be a contender this year.
Now that we have reviewed all the dates, this year it was a very close call between Tuesday January 30th and Tuesday October 22nd, but given the October date falls between a flurry of important holidays in the week before, and Diwali and All Saints Day the week after, we declare that Tuesday January 30th is the World’s Most Boring Day 2024!
*Experience shows us that a couple of these days will have public holidays announced on their dates. It might be an election, or a sport victory. In 2023, there were also eight weekdays without public holidays, but two of those had holidays declared on the dates. It is similar situation in most years.
