Janus, the two-headed god
Two-headed Janus, opener of the softly gliding year,
thou who alone of the celestials dost behold thy back,
O come propotious....
The picture greeting you, on New Year's Day, is that of Janus, the two-headed god. Why Janus?
In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates (janua), and had two faces, one looking forward and one back.
He was worshipped at the beginning of the harvest time, planting, marriage, birth, and other types of beginnings, especially the beginnings of important events in a person's life. Janus also represents the transition between primitive life and civilization, between the countryside and the city, peace and war, and the growing-up of young people.
Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.
As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the Christian calendar or abandoned altogether. By the early medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would be impregnated by G-d and conceive a son to be called Jesus.)
After William the Conqueror (AKA “William the Bastard” and “William of Normandy”) became King of England on December 25, 1066, he decreed that the English return to the date established by the Roman pagans, January 1. This move ensured that the commemoration of Jesus’ birthday (December 25) would align with William’s coronation, and the commemoration of Jesus’ circumcision (January 1) would start the new year - thus rooting the English and Christian calendars and his own Coronation).
William’s innovation was eventually rejected, and England rejoined the rest of the Christian world and returned to celebrating New Years Day on March 25.
Subsequently (about 500 years later), after the switch-over from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar (by Pope Gregory), the New Year began with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus - January 1.
(Source: U.S. News and World Report December 23, 1996).
--R.Kuppanna
thou who alone of the celestials dost behold thy back,
O come propotious....
The picture greeting you, on New Year's Day, is that of Janus, the two-headed god. Why Janus?
In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates (janua), and had two faces, one looking forward and one back.
He was worshipped at the beginning of the harvest time, planting, marriage, birth, and other types of beginnings, especially the beginnings of important events in a person's life. Janus also represents the transition between primitive life and civilization, between the countryside and the city, peace and war, and the growing-up of young people.
Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods.
As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were either incorporated into the Christian calendar or abandoned altogether. By the early medieval period most of Christian Europe regarded Annunciation Day (March 25) as the beginning of the year. (According to Catholic tradition, Annunciation Day commemorates the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would be impregnated by G-d and conceive a son to be called Jesus.)
After William the Conqueror (AKA “William the Bastard” and “William of Normandy”) became King of England on December 25, 1066, he decreed that the English return to the date established by the Roman pagans, January 1. This move ensured that the commemoration of Jesus’ birthday (December 25) would align with William’s coronation, and the commemoration of Jesus’ circumcision (January 1) would start the new year - thus rooting the English and Christian calendars and his own Coronation).
William’s innovation was eventually rejected, and England rejoined the rest of the Christian world and returned to celebrating New Years Day on March 25.
Subsequently (about 500 years later), after the switch-over from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar (by Pope Gregory), the New Year began with the date set by the early pagans, the first day of the month of Janus - January 1.
(Source: U.S. News and World Report December 23, 1996).
--R.Kuppanna
General Manager, Kuwait India International Exchange Co.
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