The gate of the year

January Feasts : Calendae, Agonalia, Compitalia, Carmentalia, Feriae sementivae

Clay head of the god Janus, from Vulci (VI century B.C.), now in the National Museum (Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia), Roma.
The god Janus (Ianus) was the god of beginnings, of passages, and from his name derived that of the first month of the year in the Roman calendar, Ianuarius (January). Because he was the divinity who supervised all beginnings, “potestatem omnium initiorum” (Augustine, City of God, VII, 3), all the Calends (the first day of each month) were dedicated to Janus, and he was invoked first in every ceremony. The month devoted to Janus thus became the gate of the year (ianua), looking at both directions, the old and the new year. Correspondingly, the god was represented as Janus Bifrons (“with double forehead”) or Biceps (“two-headed”), with two faces or two heads looking at opposite directions. The time of Janus is also that of a yet not established order, which characterizes the period of the origins. It was believed that Janus had reigned in a remote era in the same locality where subsequently the city of Rome should have arisen. Particularly, he was associated with the Janiculum hill, which takes its name from the god (Schilling 2005a).
The January Calends (Calendae Ianuariae) were, according to Ioannes Lydus (VI century A.D.) the most important Roman festival. The first of January the new consuls took their office, and their first act was to offer the sacrifice of a calf to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol. The consuls wore a white robe and rode white horses, followed by the public in procession, all of them clothed in white. In this day was customary to exchange the wishes for the new year and was common to give little augural gifts (strenae). It is curious that this Roman feast did not implied the abstention from work or the closing of the tribunals, acts which characterized every festive day in Rome. This is explained by Ovid, with the words of Janus himself: “I assigned the birthday of the year to business, lest from the auspice idleness infect the whole [year]” (Fasti, I, 167-168).
On January 9 were celebrated the Agonalia, the sacrifice of a ram by the priest-king (Rex Sacrorum), which represented a kind of rite of passage for the new year, propitiating its fertility by virtue of the fertilizing qualities of the ram, of the animal’s power “to give birth”, to begin life (Sabbatucci, 1988, p.32). In January were held also, not on a fixed date, the Compitalia, the feasts of the compita, the crossroads dedicated to the Lares Viales, protectors of the territory and thus ideally the “ancestors” of the actual inhabitants. On the Ides (January 11 to 15) were celebrated the Carmentalia, addressed to a minor goddess, Carmenta, whose name derived from carmina, the oracles. Carmenta was thus a goddess who foretold the future to the newborn, in analogy with the Greek Moira. The feast celebrated the month in which the new year was “born” and its destiny was established. At last, the month was concluded with the Feriae Sementivae, a sacrifice to Ceres and Tellus to propitiate the growth of the plants just sowed. These festivals were held mainly in the countryside, the pagus, and were therefore also called Paganalia.

[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




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January Feasts : Calendae, Agonalia, Compitalia, Carmentalia, Feriae sementivae Clay head of the god Janus, from Vulci (VI century B.C.), now in the National Museum (Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia), Roma. The god Janus (Ianus) was the god of beginnings, of passages, and from his name derived that of the first month of the year in the Roman calendar, Ianuarius (January). Because he was the divinity who supervised all beginnings, “potestatem omnium initiorum” (Augustine, City of God, VII, 3), all the Calends (the first day of each month) were dedicated to Janus, and he was invoked first in every ceremony. The month devoted to Janus thus became the gate of the year (ianua), looking at both directions, the old and the new year. Correspondingly, the god was represented as Janus Bifrons (“with double forehead”) or Biceps (“two-headed”), with two faces or two heads looking at opposite directions. The time of Janus is also that of a yet not established order, which characterizes the period of the origins. It was believed that Janus had reigned in a remote era in the same locality where subsequently the city of Rome should have arisen. Particularly, he was associated with the Janiculum hill, which takes its name from the god (Schilling 2005a). The January Calends (Calendae Ianuariae) were, according to Ioannes Lydus (VI century A.D.) the most important Roman festival. The first of January the new consuls took their office, and their first act was to offer the sacrifice of a calf to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol. The consuls wore a white robe and rode white horses, followed by the public in procession, all of them clothed in white. In this day was customary to exchange the wishes for the new year and was common to give little augural gifts (strenae). It is curious that this Roman feast did not implied the abstention from work or the closing of the tribunals, acts which characterized every festive day in Rome. This is explained by Ovid, with the words of Janus himself: “I assigned the birthday of the year to business, lest from the auspice idleness infect the whole [year]” (Fasti, I, 167-168). On January 9 were celebrated the Agonalia, the sacrifice of a ram by the priest-king (Rex Sacrorum), which represented a kind of rite of passage for the new year, propitiating its fertility by virtue of the fertilizing qualities of the ram, of the animal’s power “to give birth”, to begin life (Sabbatucci, 1988, p.32). In January were held also, not on a fixed date, the Compitalia, the feasts of the compita, the crossroads dedicated to the Lares Viales, protectors of the territory and thus ideally the “ancestors” of the actual inhabitants. On the Ides (January 11 to 15) were celebrated the Carmentalia, addressed to a minor goddess, Carmenta, whose name derived from carmina, the oracles. Carmenta was thus a goddess who foretold the future to the newborn, in analogy with the Greek Moira. The feast celebrated the month in which the new year was “born” and its destiny was established. At last, the month was concluded with the Feriae Sementivae, a sacrifice to Ceres and Tellus to propitiate the growth of the plants just sowed. These festivals were held mainly in the countryside, the pagus, and were therefore also called Paganalia. [Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]