January (idea)

January, month of empty pockets! Let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer’s forehead.
-- Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

The first month of the year on Julian and Gregorian calendars, well known in America and the UK as being bleak and depressing. January has 31 days, which is quite a few too many.

January includes:

• January 1. New Years Day (although most of us don't celebrate that nearly as much as we celebrate New Years Eve)
• The 3rd Monday in January is Martin Luther King Day in America.
• January 26th is Australia Day in Australia.
• January 26th is also Republic Day in India

January is here, with eyes that keenly glow,
A frost-mailed warrior
striding a shadowy steed of snow.
-- Edgar Fawcett

January was originally known as Januarius mensis in Latin, 'the month of Janus'. Janus was the god of portals, and also of beginnings and endings. Originally, January was not the first month of the year in the Roman calendar; that was March. But in 153 BC King Numa Pompilius (we think it was he) added on two more months, including January, to make the calender fit the solar year better.

It is deep January. The sky is hard.
The stalks are firmly rooted in ice.
-- Wallace Stevens, No Possum, No Sop, No Taters

Birthstone: Garnet (Constancy)

Flower: Carnation or Snowdrop.

January is also:

• National Soup Month
• National Hobby Month