The God of New Year's Resolutions

Is everybody thinking about their New Year's resolutions already?  I'm not.  What would normally be my New Year's resolutions have become serious life changes for me this year, what with my health being what it is.  Everyone has a resolution to lose weight, I've already lost 20 lbs in the last few months.  Hopefully I'll continue to lose weight, but I think that more aerobics and brown rice are going to help that more than a half-baked "promise" to myself.

Many Wiccans and Pagans don't celebrate calendar New Year, because we follow the Wheel of the Year.  I think we need to reconsider this.  Yes, I follow the Wheel of the Year too.  It makes more sense to me to follow a solar calendar.  You have to consider, though, that the secular 12 month calendar was originally a pagan calendar as well.   

Janus, the Two Faced God

In the 150's BC, Janus was placed at the beginning of the Julian Calendar, so called for it's "modern" creator. Julius Ceaser in 46 BC made the calendar longer, calling it the Julian Calendar, to make it reflect the seasons more accurately.  He kept Janus at the beginning, as January, because of who Janus is.  Janus is the two faced God, one head looking to the past and one to the future.  For this reason, he was placed at the beginning of the calendar, looking back at the previous year and forward to the next.  He is the God of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, endings and time.  So if we as Pagans wonder if there is a God of New Year's resolutions, this would be him.

So often we look at the secular calendar and don't realize where it comes from.  Yes, there was a Pope that changed it around, hence the term Gregorian Calendar (Pope Gregory XIII) but most of the names are still those of Roman Gods and Emperors.

January for Janus, The Two Faced God.  February for Februa, the feast of purification.  March for Mars (in Latin, that's Martius).  April comes from a word meaning second, since it was at one time the second month of the year.  May was named for the Earth Goddess, Maia.  June was named for Juno, the patron Goddess of Rome and Queen of the Gods.  July, of course, named for Julius Caesar.  August was named after Augustus Caesar.  September means seventh month, October means eighth, November means ninth, and December means tenth, which makes sense when you think about the names.  If you look at it, out of 12 months, 7 are named for Important Romans or Roman Gods and Goddesses.  Not a bad count if you ask me.

So is the secular calendar really as secular as we think?  I bet not.  Especially not when we consider the days of the week.  Monday/Moon's Day.  Tuesday/Tyr's Day.  Wednesday/Odin's Day.  Thursday/Thor's Day.  Friday/Freyja's Day.  Saturday/Saturn's Day.  Sunday/Sun's Day.

All in all, I think the rest of the world is more Pagan than they think

Goddess Bless,

S.