NIELS JØRGEN THØGERSEN
JANUARY And all its 31 days Niels Jørgen Thøgersen Where does the name January come from ? The name January is named after the Roman god JANUS ( Ianuarius ). He was the god for all beginning. He is associated with door openings, town gates, etc. The gates to his temple in Rome should never be closed, when Rome was at war. Janus was equipped with two faces, an old and a new one. In this way he was able to look back as well as forward. The word itself comes from the Latin word for door: ianua. The old Danish word for this month was GLUGMÅNED. It comes from the Danish word glug, which means peephole. You were looking into the new year. The old Saxon name for January was WULF-MONATH – meaning Wolf Month. Charlemagne called it WINTARMANOTH ( Winter Month ) Originally the calendar of the Romans had only 10 months. The first month of the year was March. The winter months were not counted. But about 713 BC king Numa Pompilius introduced January as well as February. In this way the calendar ran parallel to the Lunar Calendar. There are a number of old Danish weather warnings for the month of January: • • • • • •
Heavy snowfall in January will give a good harvest Much rain in January will make the fields empty A dry January will make a dry July When January and February are mild March will be cold Strong winds in January mean a mild March A mild January will give frost in March and April