Janus, the Roman god of new beginnings, transitions, and thresholds has a brief moment of recognition in his namesake month. The ancient Roman calendar was a 10-month lunar year of 304 days, and an awkward gap of 61 days. The year began in March, the start of the new agricultural year.

By 45 BCE the lunar calendar did not meet the needs of the growing Roman Republic. Julius Caesar introduced a solar calendar and added two new months. January, the first month of the new year, was named for Janus. February takes its name from a Roman purification festival called Februa.

The first day of January took on political overtones after 153 BCE, when Roman consuls took office the first day of January offering prayers to Janus for a successful transition.

Today, January still marks the beginning of a new year and new political appointments as well as a time for reflection on the past and setting goals. As we embark on this annual ritual, we seldom think of Janus. But he was, in his way, an interesting deity. Janus does not need to turn his head to look forward or back, seeing both directions clearly. He carried a staff in his right hand to aid travelers, and a key in his left to open gates. According to Roman mythology, Janus was present when the world began.

Unlike most Roman gods, Janus has no Greek counterpart. He was a god of agriculture, assisting Saturn, the god of sowing seeds. Mars was the god of war, but Janus oversaw the beginning and end of warfare. Janus was associated with travel, trade, and sailing, and presided over public ceremonies such as the opening of the Senate. He was present at weddings, births, and the annual harvest.

Numa Pompilius, Rome’s second king, founded a shrine for Janus in the Forum near the place it was said Janus bubbled up in a hot spring in order to thwart the Sabine attack on Rome in the 6th century BCE. The shrine had gates at each end and a bronze statue of Janus in the middle with a head facing each gate. When the gates were open, the nation was at war; when they were closed, Rome’s enemies were pacified. According to Plutarch, during Numa’s reign, the gates were closed for 43 years. In 13 BCE, Caesar Augustus closed the gates to note the Roman defeat of Spain and Germany.

In more recent times, it seems Janus’s gates never close.

Romans believed Janus helped control uncontrollable forces, for example, the opening or closing of a war. These aspects were a more challenging part of conflict than the war itself, because they were the most unpredictable. On an individual level, Janus provided a sense of security in changing times. Ironically, when Rome shifted into the Christian age, the Janiculum Temple became a Christian church.

In this modern age, we can look at past events, but aside from plans and resolutions that may or may not be completed, we have no way to predict the future. We can make plans and work to bring them to fruition, but ultimately we can only react to events after they happen as we move forward into an unpredictable future.

Sandra’s Books: Sea Tigers & Merchants. Ambition, Arrogance & Pride. Saxon Heroines. Two Coins. Rama’s Labyrinth.

Illustrations & A Few Sources

Photo of Janus from monument in Italy by Giuseppe Savo; Temple of Janus coin, Classical Numismatic Group Inc.; Louis de Boullogne, Emperor Augustus Closes the Doors of the Temple of Janus; Goddard engineer Tom Grubb manipulates a 3D simulation. NASA/Chris Gunn. Caillan Davenport. “Who was Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings?” The Conversation. Dec 31 2017.

The post Janus, The God of Transitions first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

A fresh new year offers everyone the endless possibilities of positive change and new beginnings. A time to set goals, generally referred to as Resolutions. Forty-five percent of Americans made New Year Resolutions in 2015; about 8 percent succeeded. Perhaps the others resolved to try again this year.

No matter. The point is that each year we can review the year completed and decide what to hope for from the new beginning before us. We can thank the Roman god Janus who presided over new beginnings as well as endings for our annual opportunity to start fresh. In ancient Rome, Janus was found in doorways. Because every door looked in two directions, Janus needed to see both forward and backward. He is, in that sense, two-faced.

Initially one face was unshaven, the other bearded – not unlike the New Year Baby and Father Time.

Romans believed it was important to follow proper procedure for new beginnings. Ever wondered why the bridegroom carried his bride over the threshold? One reason was to avoid the bad luck that would occur if she tripped or fell as she entered her new home.

It was especially important to please Janus at the beginning of a new year so that prosperity would flow. People decorated their houses with evergreens, made offerings, dressed festively and extended best wishes and the good gifts of dates and figs to everyone they met. Dates and figs predicted sweet things to come. The custom of New Year’s gifts persisted into the Middle Ages.

Do you think New Year’s Resolutions are a descendent of those early efforts to please Janus? What have you resolved to do in 2016? I resolved to be on my yoga mat five days a week, complete the research for my next book, and keep letting people know that Rama’s Labyrinth is available on Amazon.

No matter what, if anything, you resolved to do or be in 2016,

I wish you good health, abundant life, and joy in every day of this new year.

Featured Image: 1910 Postcard. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons

Pictures:

Sculptured Head of Janus. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Around the Web:

“Janus, Roman God.” Encyclopedia Britannica.

“New Years Resolution Statistics.” Research Date Dec. 27, 2015. Statistic Brain.

Annelida Stephan. “Lessons from the Romans.” The Getty Iris. Dec. 30, 2012

The post JANUS & THE FIRST NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

January is the month of Janus, the Roman god who looks both forward and back, supervising new beginnings. Hence, we who keep time contained on precise lines, call the first month of the year, January.

We contain time within calendars. Calendars tell us how many days must pass before a particular event takes place, or, conversely, how many days have passed. People have kept track of time since earliest recorded history, and probably longer. Ancient Sumerians organized both a lunar year of 354 days and a solar year of 365.25 days. To keep things tidy, they added an extra month every six years.

When Julius Caesar gained control of Rome, he inherited a calendar featuring 304 days over ten months. He found this inefficient. Besides, what could be more indicative of power than being able to control time itself? The Julian Calendar stood largely unchanged until 1582. Caesar began the year on January 1 and ended it on December 31.

The Church continued to used the Julian Calendar, but by the time Gregory XIII became pope, adjustments needed to be made to correct the length of the calendar year by 0.002% so that the Festival of Easter would occur at the correct time. Apparently the date had been drifting, because it was tied to the Spring Equinox. [Sidebar: The date for Easter still drifts, but that’s a story for another time.]

With this adjustment the length of the official year changed from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days, which actually reduces the year by ten minutes and forty-eight seconds per year. Even so, every four years an extra day occurs in February.

Despite Gregory’s proclamation, the calendar still didn’t work properly, largly because in 1582 the earth was the center of the universe. Scientists and astronomers adjusted their computations until Copernicus made his breakthrough. Our universe actually revoves around the sun, reducing earth’s status to a mere planet. The Church ignored and then denied this discovery until 1757 when Pope Benedict XIV suspended the ban on heliocentric scholarship.

Time and calendars have moved on. We can compute planetary motion with ever greater precision. We can balance our dates on paper and digital graphs called calendars. Yet as Marcus Aurelius pointed out in his often impassive way:

“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream;

for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away,

and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

Yet another reason to fully embrace and enjoy the current moment.

Acknowledgements:
Featured Image: January Print, 1820s, US Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Information taken from Wikipedia.

The post CALENDRICAL TRIVIA first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.