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New Year's Eve, Vienna by Wolfgang H. Wögerer,
Wien, Austria
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Janus is the Roman god who presides over all beginnings
and transitions. He is the god of time itself. Blessed with two faces, this god
can gaze both into the future as well as the past. In ancient times, he stood
at the gates of Rome, protecting the city from the Italic mountain tribe known
as the Sabines, enemies of early Rome. Our Roman ancestors worshiped him at the
time of planting and harvest. They also acknowledged him at the time of
marriage, birth and death. All invocations to the gods were preceded by a
prayer to Janus, as he guards the gates and access to Olympus. The Romans
revered him enough to name the month of January in his honor. Thus Janus (given
the modern New Year is in January, not March as in times past) is the God of
the New Year.
