January and a New Year!

Monte and I went to celebrate the roll-over into a new year with friends last night. We (getting old!) weren't going to stay to midnight, but did. Following confetti, horn blowing and champaigne, we prayed for this new year.

Dawson and friends had come home earlier from "Skate the Lake" (Evergreen Lake) and were playing games at the kitchen table. They spent the night. Dawson's skiing, actually telemark skiing, for two days.

January comes from Janus (in the Julian calendar) which was a Roman two-faced god - one looking to the past, the other to the future. I've seen some pictures with an old man and a beard on one side, and the opposite face, a baby. This god guarded entrances or gates.

In the Middle Ages they made New Year March 25, which is the Annunciation on the church calendar. They were probably thinking the Christian year should begin at Conception. Then too, the Jewish religious calendar began with Nisan, which is in the spring (their civil calendar has their New Year celebration with the 7th month, in the fall). If you look at the Latin roots for Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec, you have 7, 8, 9, and 10, if you begin the year in March. Once the Gregorian calendar was adopted (not by England or the USA until the late 1700's) New Year went back to January.

I'm looking forward to this new year with hope. I'm resolving to exercise more consistently this year.