Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Just Say No to abstinence this January

(Photo: iStock)

Today’s a day for waltzes from Vienna and loafing around on one of the three days of the year when people actually stop work. But tomorrow, it’s going to be business as usual – only worse. The retail sector goes all glum on 2 January. It’s out with the party food, the charcuterie platters, port and anything featuring mincemeat, and in with smoothies, salads and plant-based ready meals, plus a focus on fitness gear in the clothing department. Oh and alcohol free everything for the teetotal binge that is Dry January. 

January never was a time for abstinence; it was a time for sociability and eating well

Can we not see how bizarre, how unnatural all this is? The absurdity that is Dry January is a decade old, and for almost as long as that I’ve sought every year to persuade the nation – all right, a couple of friends – that it’s wrong, wrong, wrong, especially if you’re even remotely Christian.

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