The concept was born in Great Britain thanks to the association Alcohol Change UK in 2013, and since then it has been an incredible success: 4 million Britons took part in the 2019 edition.

The French version of Dry January has seen its opposition as President Macron himself quashed a recent attempt to promote le janvier sec, saying that wine was a noble ingredient of French life.

A list of eminent figures in the French worlds of arts, academia and sport, have also urged their compatriots to keep on drinking.

“Launched in a playful fashion, which everyone is free to take up in their own way, without prohibition, guilt or moralism, the “Défi De Janvier” is not the prohibitionist injunction that strangely evokes this tribune. 

The “Défi De Janvier” is carried out by actors of civil society, in its diversity, carers of course, but also by young people, athletes, associations, citizens … They like to enjoy life and its pleasures, with a curiosity that goes beyond the limits of the fixed canons of certain traditions and the social standards of consumption that sometimes impose it. Respectful of culture, in its diversity, they certainly appreciate the pleasures but also know the risks. This is why, faced with this equation with which everyone is confronted, they propose this challenge which consists in questioning the permanent injunction to drink alcohol and in analyzing their capacities of control.

The pleasures of life are both numerous and diverse, and the experience of our colleagues abroad shows the value of a break in alcohol consumption: it provides both a feeling of well-being, improved sleep, and often welcome weight loss.”

Find more from FÉDÉRATION ADDICTION and https://dryjanuary.fr/ (France, January 2020)