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JANUARY

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 155 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JANUARY , the first See also:

month in the See also:modern See also:calendar, consisting of See also:thirty-one days. The name (See also:Lat. See also:Januarius) is derived from the two-faced See also:Roman See also:god See also:Janus, to whom the month was dedicated. As doorkeeper of See also:heaven, as looking both into the past and the future, and as being essentially the deity who busied himself with the beginnings of all enterprises, he was appropriately made See also:guardian of the fortunes of the new See also:year. The See also:consecration of the month took See also:place by an offering of See also:meal, See also:salt, See also:frankincense and See also:wine, each of which was new. The Anglo-See also:Saxons called January Wulfmonath, in allusion to the fact that See also:hunger then made the wolves bold enough to come into the villages. The See also:principal festivals of the month are: New Year's See also:Day; Feast of the See also:Circumcision; See also:Epiphany; Twelfth-Day; and See also:Conversion of St See also:Paul (see CALENDAR).

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