- The month of January gets its name from the Roman god, Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions. Janus is depicted as having two faces, one looking back and one looking forward.
- It was one of two months added to the ten month Roman year in around 713 BC. Before that, the time between December and March had been seen as a period without any months. The addition of January and February is attributed to King Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome.
- If you happen to be born in January, your birthstone is the garnet and your birth flower is the cottage pink. In Japan, the Camellia is also seen as a symbol of this month.
- Ancient Saxons referred to this time of year as "Wolf Month" because Wolves came closer to their settlements then, looking for food. In Finland, the word for January translated to "Oak Month" and in Hawaii, it used to be called Kaelo, meaning the time of year when the destructive worm enuhe appeared and ate the fresh vine leaves.
- The full Moon in January was known as the Wolf Moon by some cultures. Others referred to it as Quiet Moon, Snow Moon, Cold Moon, Chaste Moon, Disting Moon, and Moon of Little Winter. In China, January's full moon was dedicated to Ch'ang-O, Chinese Goddess of the bedchamber and protector of Children, and Tsai Shen, god of Money and wealth. Native American tribes referred to this moon as Sun has not Strength to Thaw, Great Spirit Moon, Time of Flying Ants, When the Snow Blows Like Spirits in the Wind, Moon of the Strong Cold, When the Old Fellow Spreads the Brush, Moon when Snow Drifts into Tipis, Moon when Limbs of Trees are Broken by Snow, Weight Loss Month (because animals lose their fat), Whirling Wind Month and Moon of the Terrible.
- There are a number of superstitions connected with the first moon of the year. Young women, on seeing the moon for the first time that year, could recite a rhyme ending with the words "Whom shall I marry?" More often than not, she'd have an idea of who she wanted to marry, so the next thing she'd do is ask the next person she met a random question to which the answer would be "yes" or "no". If the answer was yes, it meant she would marry the person she wanted. If they didn't have anyone in mind, (or, presumably if the answer to the question was "no" and they had to keep looking) they'd dream of their future spouse that night. To work out how many more years they'd be single, young women would look at the moon through a mirror. The number of moons they could see was the number of years that would pass before they were wed.
- January is said to be a lucky month to get married, with New Year's Day being especially lucky. "Marry when the year is new, Always loving, kind and true." That said, there's another folk saying which goes "Married in January's hoar and rime, Widowed you'll be before your time."
- Keep an eye on the weather for the first 12 days of January, because it's a prediction of what the weather will be like for the rest of the year, each successive day representing one of the months to come (2 January = February, 3 January = March, and so on). In other weather lore, a wet January means a wet spring and a warm January means a cold May. Modern science has worked out that January is the coldest month of the year 40% of the time and 44% of major wind storms take place this month.
- In most years, January begins on the same day of the week as October. In leap years, however, that's not the case. January then begins on the same day of the week as April and July.
- January's awareness campaigns include autism, prevention of birth defects, kindness to food servers, home Bread baking machines, clinical trials, crime prevention, quality of life/life balance, creativity, Eggs, eye care/glaucoma, hot Tea, Oatmeal, soup, Blood donors, thyroid disease and Whale watching.
NEW!
A Tale of Two Sisters
During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.
Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.
As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.
Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?
Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?
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