Study sheds light on why it feels like Christmas as Ramadan comes early every year

Christmas is here and everyone is busy decorating their homes with big Christmas trees and choosing gifts for loved ones. However, does it seem like these annual festivals come early every year? Well, a study published in the journal PLOS One says that the excitement of the festive season can make it seem like time will pass so quickly.

The research team, led by Ruth Ogden, a psychology professor at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, conducted two studies—one focused on Christmas in the United Kingdom and the other on Ramadan in Iraq. The first study asked 789 participants to rate their agreement with the statement, “Christmas comes more quickly every year” using a seven-point scale. The second study included 621 participants from Iraq and had a similar design but replaced the Christmas context with Ramadan.

(Also Read: Christmas Decorations on a Budget: 8 Simple DIY Ideas to Transform Your Home into a Festive Wonderland)

People strongly agree that annual festivals come more quickly

The results of both studies showed that people strongly agreed with the idea that annual festivals come more quickly. While 76% of UK participants agreed that Christmas feels like it has come too soon, 70% of Iran participants felt the same about Ramadan.

Several key factors were associated with these perceptions. Participants who enjoyed festivals more, paid more attention to time, and were more likely to feel that these events happened faster. While it is believed that older age is associated with greater time distortions for annual events, this study showed that age has no significant effect. The study revealed that the feeling of annual festivals arriving early each year is a shared experience across cultures.

This feeling is not limited to any one culture

The researchers concluded, “The results of this study suggest that there is a widespread belief that annual events such as Christmas and Ramadan come more quickly each year.” “Therefore this feeling is not limited to any one culture or event. The extent to which people agreed that these events occurred more rapidly each year was predicted by prospective memory function, event-specific enjoyment, and attention to time. Critically, greater age was not associated with greater speed of time between events in any country. These findings highlight that our experience of time is influenced not only by what we have already done, but also by our ability to remember what remains to be done. Therefore further research is needed to explore the role of prospective memory in time.