January Facts, Customs and Traditions

The beginning of the new year and the time to make New Year resolutions.

January was established as the first the first month of the year by the Roman Calendar. It was named after the god Janus (Latin word for door). Janus has two faces which allowed him to look both backwards into the old year and forwards into the new one at the same time. He was the 'spirit of the opening'.

In the very earliest Roman calendars there were no months of January or February at all. The ancient Roman calendar had only ten months and the new year started the year on 1 March. To the Romans, ten was a very important number. Even when January (or Januarius as the Romans called it) was added, the New Year continued to start in March. It remained so in England and her colonies until about 200 years ago.

The Anglo-Saxons called the first month Wolf monath because wolves came into the villages in winter in search of food.

New Year's Day

New Year's Day is the first day of the year, in the Gregorian calendar. In modern times, it is January 1. It is a time for looking forward and wishing for a good year ahead. It is also a holiday.

People welcome in the New Year on the night before. This is called New Year's Eve. In Scotland, people celebrate with a lively festival called Hogmanay. All over the world there are parties, fireworks, singing and dancing, to ring out the old year and ring in the new. As the clock strikes midnight, people link arms and sing a song called Auld Lang Syne. It reminds them of old and new friends.

The Door Custom

In the old days, the New Year started with a custom called 'first footing', which was suppose to bring good luck to people for the coming year. As soon as midnight had passed and January 1st had started, people used to wait behind their doors for a dark haired person to arrive. The visitor carried a piece of coal, some bread, some money and some greenery. These were all for good luck - the coal to make sure that the house would always be warm, the bread to make sure everyone in the house would have enough food to eat, money so that they would have enough money, and the greenery to make sure that they had a long life.

The visitor would then take a pan of dust or ashes out of the house with him, thus signifying the departure of the old year.

New Year Superstition

The 1st of January was a highly significant day in medieval superstitions regarding prosperity, or lack of it, in the year ahead. A flat cake was put on one of the horns of a cow in every farmyard. The farmer and his workers would then sing a song and dance around the cow until the cake was thrown to the ground. If it fell in front of the cow that signified good luck; to fall behind indicated the opposite.

Unluckiest Day of the Year

It was an old Saxon belief that 2nd January was one of the unluckiest days of the whole year. Those unfortunate enough to be born on this day could expect to dies an unpleasant death.

St Agnes's Eve 20 January

This was the day on which girls and unmarried women who wished to dream of their future husbands would perform certain rituals before going to bed. These included transferring pins one by one from a pincushion to their sleeve whilst reciting the Lord's Prayer, or abstaining from food and drink all day, walking backwards up the stairs to bed, and eating a portion of dumb cake ( previously prepared with a group of friends in total silence and often containing an unpleasantly large portion of salt) before lying down to sleep.

Customs of the Year's First New Moon

It is said that if you look through a silk handkerchief at the new moon, which has never been washed, the number of moons you see will be the number of years which will pass until you're married. But it is unlucky to see the new moon through a window.

To dream of your future husband, it is said that at the first appearance of the first new moon of the year you should go out and stand over the spars of a gate or stile and look at the moon saying:

All hail to thee moon, all hail to thee,
I prythee, good moon, reveal to me,
This night who my husband shall be.

Festivals and Traditions

Wassailing has been associated with Christmas and New Year as far back as the 1400s. It was a way of passing on good wishes among family and friends.

5th -Twelfth Night

Evening before Epiphany. Twelfth Night marks the end of the medieval Christmas festivities and the end of Twelfthtide (the 12-day season after Christmas ending with Epiphany). Also called Twelfth Day Eve. Twelfth Night is when all Christmas Decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. If decorations are not removed on Twelfth Night, they should stay up all year.

6th - Epiphany or Twelfth Day

Also known as Old Christmas Day and Twelfthtide. On the twelfth day after Christmas, Christians celebrate the visit of the Magi or wise men to the baby Jesus.

7th St Distaff's Day

This was the day on which women had to return to work with the distaff (another name for a spindle) after the Christmas holiday.

Plough Monday

The day on which work started again after Twelfth Night was known to countryfolk as Plough Monday: the day on which labourers had to return to the fields. The day was also nicknamed St Distaff's Day: the day on which women had to return to work with the distaff (another name for a spindle) after the Christmas holiday.

Wassailing - People went from door to door, rather like carol singers at Christmas times, but at New Year they were called 'wassailers'.

25th - Burns Night

The people of Scotland honour their greatest poet, Robert Burns. He was born on January 25th nearly 245 years ago (1759) and wrote his first song when he was sixteen. A traditional Scottish meal is neaps (swede), tatties (potato) and haggis washed down with whisky.