Pr Ntr Kmt World Religious Calendar Pagan Holy Days

World Religious Calendar 9
Archetype: Taliesin (Celtic God of Bards)
Symbol: eagle or stag
Folk Names:
Moon of Inception
Moon of Beginning
Asatru (ancient Norse) information
Month: Snowmoon
Roman information
Kal. Ian.
Kalends of January
Month: Ianvarivs or Ianuarius or Januarius or Janus
The Kalends is the first day of the month and was celebrated as a religious holy day to Juno, the
Roman Queen Goddess. In the earliest Roman lunar calendar, the Kalends was the day of the New
Moon. In Roman society, interest on a debt was due on the Kalends. Under the lunar calendar, a
pontifex (priest) would observe the sky and call out the first sighting of the thin lunar crescent of the
New Moon, indicating the start of a new month. The English word calendar comes from the Latin word
Kalends, which in turn came from the Latin word calare meaning to announce solemly or to call out.
The Roman month of January is named for Janus (Ianvs). January was sacred to Janus, the Roman
God of gates, doors, and entrances. Janus was an early Italic sky god that long predated Rome. Ovid
claimed that Janus said “The ancient called me chaos, for a being from of old am I.” Ovid also claimed
that after the world’s creation, Janus said, “It was then that I, till that time a mere ball, a shapeless lump,
assumed the face and members of a god.” Joannes of Lydia said, “Our own Philadelphia still preserves
a trace of the ancient belief. On the first day of the month there goes in procession no less a personage
than Janus himself, dressed up in a two-faced mask, and people call him Saturnus, identifying him with
Kronos.” The beginning of each day, month, and year were sacred to Janus. The Romans believed that
Janus opened the gates of heaven each day at dawn , letting out the monring, and closed the gates of
heaven each day at dusk.
The earliest Roman months were lunar. According to Roman mythology, the ten month solar calendar
aligned to the vernal equinox was introduced by Romulus, the founder of Rome, around 753 BCE. In
Romulus’ calendar, January did not exist. Numa Pompilius, the second of the seven traditional kings of
Rome, added two more months, for a 12 month year. In Numa’s calendar, January was added to the
beginning of the year (following February) and had 29 days. Gaius Julius Caesar, as Pontifex Maximus
(supreme bridge-builder, a religious title), reorganized the calendar on the first day of 45 BCE. In
Caesar’s calendar (the Julian Calendar), January had 31 days and February was moved to after January.
Caesar’s calendar was calculated by Sosigenes, an Egyptian astrologer/astronomer. In 8 BCE, Augustus
Caesar fixed errors by pontiffs after Julius’ death and made other minor modifications, resulting in the
modern Western calendar. The modern Gregorian Calendar, named for Roman Catholic Pope Gregory
the Thirteenth, was a realignment in 1582. The Romans avoided giving January 30 days (skipping from
29 to 31) because of a superstitious dread of even numbers.
Today totals 1 in modern Western numerology.
numerology
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