Gaea's

Posts Tagged ‘roman mythology’

The ancient Roman calendar had only ten months, January and February didn’t exist so the new year started on 1 March. Numa, in his regulation of the Roman calendar called the first month Januarius after Janus, who was, at the time, the highest divinity. Even when January was added as the eleventh Roman month, the New Year continued to start in March. January was named after the god Janus who had 2 faces which allowed him to look both backwards into the old year and forwards into the new year at the same time. He was known as the “spirit of the opening”. January symbolises the opening of the New Year. In Roman mythology, Janus (Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. Read the rest of this entry »