Roll out the red carpet, for today is a day of celebration. No, it's not just become a surprise bank holiday, but a new piece of research into the days of the week, has revealed what we've known for some time – Fridays really are the best day of the week.
Psychologists from the universities of Lincoln, York and Hertfordshire have joined forces to find out exactly what it is about Mondays that make us blue, and why any time on Friday is always gin o'clock.
Participants were asked which words they associated with certain days. Needless to say Mondays were dubbed as 'boring', 'hectic' and 'tired' while Fridays were associated with more positive words such as, 'party', 'freedom' and 'release'.
'The seven day weekly cycle is repeated for all of us from birth, and we believe this results in each day of the week acquiring its own character,' explained lead researcher Dr David Ellis.
But what about all those days in between?
When asked on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday which day of the week it was, almost 40% of participants couldn't remember confusing it for the day before or the day after. And when asked what words they associated with the 'midweek days' most couldn't differentiate between them. The researchers' reasoning behind it? Well, it's all down to music, apparently.
'One reason behind midweek days evoking fewer associations than other days could be down to how infrequently they occur in natural language, thus providing fewer opportunities for associations to form,' suggested Dr Rob Jenkins from the Department of Psychology at the University of York. 'For example we have an abundance of pop songs which make use of Mondays and Fridays, while the midweek days are rarely used.'
So without further a do, here are the best TGIF songs to get you through the best day of the week.
