Why do we feel like the holidays go by so quickly?

The psychological phenomenon of the "holiday paradox" is the expectation and pressure of a perfect holiday that makes many people feel like time passes more quickly.

Summer vacations, National Day, and Tet holidays often pass by in the blink of an eye. This makes many people feel regretful and more tired when they have to return to school or work. According to experts, people's perception of time makes holidays seem shorter than working days. This phenomenon is called the "holiday paradox".

This term was used by Professor Claudia Hammond, a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex, UK, to describe the feeling of dissonance between two equal periods of time. Before and during a holiday, people use a prospective vantage to evaluate each day that has passed. After the holiday, they use a retrospective vantage. These two perspectives differ greatly in terms of time.

According to a 2016 study published in Scientific American, anticipation tends to happen very quickly, especially with happy memories that are different from everyday life. Joshua Klapow, an associate professor of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says many people have a habit of “cramming” activities during the holidays. They “pack” social activities that take weeks or months into just a few days. These experiences make the hours pass quickly.

A person is on vacation at the beach. Photo: Freepik

Research published in the journal Cognitive Science in 2012 called this perspective a “mental time machine,” which influences how people perceive the speed of time.

The second reason why the holidays pass quickly is psychological pressure. According to Associate Professor Klapow, retailers deliberately promote and communicate about this topic in the months leading up to the holiday season, building up customer anticipation to stimulate demand. In the US, this is especially common before Christmas. Many brands count down several months, creating pressure that makes people feel the holidays pass quickly.

The expectations surrounding the holidays also make time feel short.

"We often expect too much. We want to have fun, we want things to go smoothly, we want things to be different from our daily lives. When we put that expectation on a few specific days, they will go by very quickly," Associate Professor Klapow said, adding that if you rush to experience a great holiday, everything will happen at a dizzying speed.

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