If you want to find a match, try swiping this time of year
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or Kwanzaa. Or even the 11th anniversary of Beyoncé’s surprise self-titled album.
At least that’s what listener Antares thinks. She called Explain It to Me — Vox’s call-in podcast — to ask if cuffing season is real.
“So in my understanding, cuffing season is an actual season which occurs between about October-ish and lasts until the weather starts to get good again,” she says. “During that time of year, people tend to want to find somebody to date — casual or otherwise.”
Antares called in for an ex-boyfriend-turned-platonic-friend who has been struggling on dating apps recently. “I wanted to tell him that cuffing season is right around the corner and he might have better luck. But is that true?”
The term “cuffing season” likely got its start in New York during the 2000s. The oldest reference online is from Musa Murchison. Murchison is now an artist and researcher, but back in 2008, they were a student at Brooklyn College, hosting a weekly radio show called “Cuz We Said So Radio.” On November 17, 2008, the topic of discussion was to cuff or not cuff.
