🌅 “New year, new beginnings.”

Every January, we reset our goals, make plans, and tell ourselves this year will be different. But the word January itself has always been about beginnings and thresholds. It comes from Janus, the Roman god of doors, gates, and transitions, the one who looked both forward and backward. The Romans chose him to watch over the year’s first month, and his name has stayed with us ever since.

That Roman root Ianuarius spread across most of Europe, giving us Janvier, Enero, Gennaio, and Janeiro. All of them trace back to the same ancient image: a god standing in a doorway, one face toward the past, one toward what’s next. It’s one of the few month names that carries a clear mythological story rather than just a number.

But not every culture followed the Roman model. In Czech and Polish, January is Leden, meaning “ice month.” In Croatian, siječanj likely comes from a word meaning “cut,” referring to cutting wood in winter. Finnish has Tammikuu, “oak month,” perhaps a nod to strong trees surviving the cold. Each one tells its own story of how people saw the first stretch of the year, cold, hard, and filled with work.

What’s striking is how these names capture two sides of the same truth: the Roman Janus reminds us of transition and reflection, while the Slavic and Nordic roots remind us of endurance and renewal. One looks inward; the other looks toward survival and growth.

Across languages, January is both a mirror and a spark — a month that invites us to look back just long enough to start again. The ancient Romans couldn’t have picked a better god for the job.