Consulting the Liminal: the Lost Meaning of January

Over the last few weeks I’ve questioned my New Year practices. I was once a New Years’ Enthusiast, eagerly awaiting the turn of the calendar page and all of the sequin-spangled opportunities it seemed to bring. But over the last few years my attitude has changed dramatically. January comes and I still feel consumed by winter, as deep in contemplation as the springtime blossoms hidden below ground. New Year’s Eve and Day as we celebrate it today begins to feel totally arbitrary.

It’s not a logical divide.

There is no seasonal change to mark anything “new.” Its associations with the beginning of the year are wholly superstitious, a holdout from a pagan society long gone but never forgotten.

The old gods are not dead. They’ve simply transformed. And there may be no better example than the namesake of January himself, an entity so familiar with transitions that he ruled them.

Janus was a uniquely Roman god.

Unlike the many deities that found themselves absorbed into the pantheon after grand campaigns of war or came in on the winds of trade, Janus was said to date back to the first kings of Rome. He was present as Lupercus tended the She-Wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus, assisted as Saturn heralded the Golden Age. There…