Our month of January is named after Janus – the Roman god of beginnings and endings. He was the gatekeeper god, the sentry of time, the watchman of entrances and exits. He was one of the most important gods in the Roman pantheon. Thread.
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He supervised the transition of day into night, the passage of youth into adulthood, of birth and death. He held the keys to all doors that led from one realm to the next. Men invoked him when they prayed, since he was the god who granted or refused access to the other gods.
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He had two faces. One either side, front and back, so he saw both past and future, what was ahead of him as well as what was behind, the beginning and the end. When we describe a person as “two-faced”, as having two juxtaposed manners, we are alluding to him.
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In Latin, his name – Janus, or Ianus – meant doorway, or passage. We find this stem in words like “janitor” – a caretaker of corridors and passageways, who oversees openings and closings. The Romans saw him as their city’s doorkeeper.
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January is named after him since it is an end and a beginning at once – the close of one year and the opening of a new one. This has been my long-winded way of saying – happy new year.
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