The Winter Months
JANUARY



The beginning of the new year and the time to make New Year resolutions.
January
was established as the first the first month of the year by the Roman
Calendar. It was named after the god Janus (Latin word for door). Janus
has two faces which allowed him to look both backwards into the old
year and forwards into the new one at the same time. He was the 'spirit
of the opening'.
In
the very earliest Roman calendars there were no months of January or
February at all. The ancient Roman calendar had only ten months and the
new year started the year on 1 March. To the Romans, ten was a very
important number. Even when January (or Januarius as the Romans called
it) was added, the New Year continued to start in March. It remained so
in England and her colonies until about 200 years ago.
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