Dry January, Veganuary, Fanuary, Tanuary. The guilt of Christmas consumption has an an ever increasing variety of ways you can rename the month in an effort to reframe your approach to life for the first 31 days of the year. Whether your demon is alcohol, meat, body hair or admitting it’s winter, this is the month when you can have adopt your very own set of mantras and motivational social media posts to share the new found you with the world.
It’s like Hallmark Holidays, created as an excuse to send cards for decades or arbitrary occasions created to celebrate your organisation or industry. National Hot Dog Day? It’s in the middle of National Hot Dog Month, as designated by the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council. July 8th this year, if you’re interested. This month we have Chinese New Year on the 5th and the obvious big-hitter on the 14th. With saintly associations and alignments with love since Chaucer started writing poems in the 14th century, Valentine’s Day is a fairly legitimate occasion marker. More recently it’s more likely to be associated with chocolate, underwear and expensive flowers but well, what’s not to love. All those can be bought for the special girl (or boy) in your life. There are a few recommendations over the coming pages.
This month also plays host to International Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8th. We therefore adopted a Feminine theme this month and our contributors have profiled a powerful female sportsperson, taken a look at independent female travellers and a wry look at the way men are adopting female stereotypes. Our shoot this month is one just for the girls but we’ve also dedicated some space to a shoot of the surfboards created for Healing Waves’ ‘Art of Surfing’ Auction coming up this month. Living in Jersey, surrounded by the sea we may sometimes take it for granted. The guys at Healing Waves use the ocean as therapy, helping physically and neurologically disabled people to enjoy the benefits of the water and water based activities we take for granted. Check the exhibition and silent auction later this month.
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