The research team headed by psychology professor Ruth Ogden from Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, performed two studies-one focusing on Christmas in the United Kingdom and the other on Ramadan in Iraq. The first study asked 789 participants who were asked to rate their agreement with the statement, “Christmas comes around more quickly each year,” using a seven-point scale. The second study had 621 participants from Iraq and had a similar design but replaced references to Christmas with Ramadan.

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People strongly agree that annual festivals come around more quickly

The result of both the studies revealed that the people strongly agreed with the idea that annual festivals do come around more quickly. While 76% of the UK participants agreed that Christmas felt like it came sooner, 70% of the participants from Iran felt the same about Ramadan.

Several key factors were attached to these perceptions. The participants who reported greater enjoyment of the festivals, paid more attention to time, were more likely to feel that these events came around faster. While it’s believed that old age is associated with greater time distortions for annual events, this study revealed that age had no significant effect. The study further showed that the sensation of annual festivals arriving sooner each year is a shared experience across culture.

This sensation is not limited to a single culture

“The results of this study suggests that there is widespread belief that annual events such as Christmas and Ramadan feel as though they come around more quickly each year,” the researchers concluded. “The sensation is not therefore limited to a single culture or event. The extent to which people agreed that these events appear to occur more quickly each year was predicted by prospective memory function, event-specific enjoyment, and attention to time. Critically, older age was not associated with greater speeding up of time between events in either country. These findings highlight that our experience of time is not just influenced by what we have already done, but also our capacity to remember what remains to be done. Further research exploring the role of prospective memory in timing is therefore warranted.”