It’s easy to forget that our present-day calendar has ancient Roman roots. “January” is named after Janus – a Roman god whose remit included beginnings, endings and thresholds.
This is a fitting name for the start of a year, yet there was a strange period in Roman history when neither January nor February existed.
Early Romans did not know the true length of the year in astronomical terms. Apparently the phases of the Moon were the original basis of estimate – not a bad idea but, as we now know, a poor yardstick for measuring a year.
Under this regime, time of year was perhaps more of a feeling than a calculation and this lead to the darkest 60 days being relegated to a nameless period of shut-down or hibernation. The calendar simply stopped at the end of December and restarted in March, when signs of spring gave rise to things like agriculture and war – things that the god Mars approved of. (This is apparently why fiscal years still run from March to March).
Around 700BC, the discrepancy was officially recognised, leading to the addition of January and February and the 12-month year with all days accounted for. But while there was now some kind of parity with the heavens, the existing months kept their original names, hence we are stuck with the mislabeled September (7), October (8), November (9) and December (10) – they’re all out by two.
Definitely quirky, but maybe the original Roman logic was understandable. In the northern hemisphere, January in particular can be a dark, post-festive slog, sometimes accompanied by a kind of lethargy that stems from the lack of daylight, or “Seasonal Affected Disorder” as it’s become known. Understandable then, that people living 3,000 years ago would retreat and wait for the spring.
But as low key and gloomy as the first month can be, it is inescapably a beginning and one that has some fine qualities when the rain isn’t lashing down. With the sun riding a little higher, but still very low, the trees bare and the ambiance austere, there can be a certain wintry mystique about the January landscape that other months cannot match.
How to try and capture this mystique? Head out, see it, feel it, photograph it. Here’s what I managed this year.
AT Photo 