January

January (in Latin, Ianuarius) is named after Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions in Roman mythology.

[1] Traditionally, the original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months totaling 304 days, winter being considered a month-less period.

Around 713 BC, the semi-mythical successor of Romulus, King Numa Pompilius, is supposed to have added the months of January and February, so that the calendar covered a standard lunar year (354 days).

In Slovene, it is traditionally called prosinec; the name, associated with millet bread and the act of asking for something, was first written in 1466 in the Škofja Loka manuscript.

[2] According to Theodor Mommsen,[3] 1 January became the first day of the year in 600 AUC of the Roman calendar (153 BC), due to disasters in the Lusitanian War.