"January is here, with eyes that
keenly glow,
A frost-mailed warrior
striding a shadowy steed of snow."
- Edgar Fawcett
"Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art
of winter gardening and even the
most experienced gardener
can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them."
- Vincent A. Simeone
"Whose woods these are I think
I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow."
- Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening
"The shortest day has passed,
and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and
February,
at least we notice that the days are getting longer. Minute by minute
they lengthen out. It takes some weeks before
we become aware of the change. It is imperceptible even as the growth
of a child, as you watch it day by day,
until the moment comes when with a start of delighted surprise we realize
that we can stay out of doors in a
twilight lasting for another quarter of a precious hour."
- Vita Sackville-West
"January is the quietest month in the
garden. ... But just because it looks quiet doesn't mean that nothing
is happening. The soil, open to the
sky, absorbs the pure rainfall while microorganisms convert tilled-under
fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants. The feasting earthworms tunnel along, aerating
the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come."
- Rosalie Muller Wright, Editor of Sunset Magazine, 1/99
"There are two seasonal diversions
that can ease the bite of any winter.
One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues."
- Hal Borland
"Here's to thee, old apple tree
Whence thou mayest bud
Whence thou mayest blow
Whence thou mayest bear apples enow."
- Wassailing
Songs, England, January 5th
by Scott Calhoun
by Christopher Beane
by Jocelyne Lawton
by Lewis and Nancy Hill.
by Eileen Powell
"It snowed and snowed, the whole world over,
Snow swept the world from end to end.
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned."
- Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."
- Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne
"Bare branches
of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow."
- Nelda
Hartmann, January Morn
"From Heaven I fall, though from
earth I begin.
No lady alive can show such a skin.
I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather,
But heavy and dark, when you squeeze me together.
Though candor and truth in my
aspect I bear,
Yet many poor creatures I help to insnare.
Though so much of Heaven appears in my make,
The foulest impressions I easily take.
My parent and I produce one
another,
The mother the daughter, the daughter the mother."
- James Parton, A Riddle - On Snow
Selected by Barbara Rogansky
Selected by Robert Atwan
Edited by Gary Schmidt
Selected by Christina Hardyment
by Helen Thompson
Selected by Carolyn Edwards
by Caitlin Matthews
Many cultures celebrate New Year's day on March 21st, the Spring Equinox.
"There is a privacy about it which no other
season gives you ..... In spring, summer
and fall people sort of have
an open season on
each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when
you can savor
belonging to yourself."
- Ruth Stout
"January, month of empty pockets! … let us endure this evil
month, anxious as a theatrical producer's forehead."
- Colette
"Little January
Tapped at my door today.
And said, "Put on your winter wraps,
And come outdoors to play."
Little January
Is always full of fun;
Until the set of sun.
Little January
Will stay a month with me
And we will have such jolly times -
Just come along and see."
- Winifred C. Marshall, January
"To read a poem in
January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June."
- Jean-Paul Sartre
Slow as molasses in January.
by Scott Cunningham
by Andrew Chevallier
by Gregory L. Tilford
by Betty E.M. Jacobs
by Tammi Hartung
"One of my
current pet theories is that the winter is a kind of evangelist, more subtle
than Billy Graham,
of course, but of the same stuff."
- Shirley Ann Grau
"Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
February has twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one;
Excepting leap year, that 's the time
When February's days are twenty-nine."
"The name, given to the month of 'January',
is derived from the ancient Roman name 'Janus' who presided over
the gate to the new year. He was revered
as the 'God of Gateways', 'of Doorways' and 'of the Journey.' Janus
protected the 'Gate of Heaven', known as the 'Lord
of Beginnings', is associated with the 'Goddess Juno-Janus',
and often
symbolized by an image of a face that looks forwards and backwards at the same time. This symbolism
can easily be associated with the month known
by many as
the start of a new year which brings new opportunities.
We cast out the old and
welcome in the new. It is the time when many reflect on events of the previous year
and
often resolve to redress or improve some aspect of daily life or personal philosophy."
-
Mysitcal
World Wide Web
"January is named after the Roman god
Janus, who was always shown as having two heads. He looked back to
the last year and forward to the new one. The Roman New Year festival was called the Calends, and people
decorated their homes and gave each other gifts."
- New Year's Day
"Janus was invoked at the commencement of most
actions; even in the worship of the other gods the votary
began by offering wine
and incense to Janus. The first month in the year was named from him; and
under
the title of Matutinus he was regarded as the opener of the day.
Hence he had charge of the gates of Heaven,
and hence, too, all gates, Januoe,
were called after him, and supposed to be under his care. Hence, perhaps,
it was, that he was represented with a staff and key, and that he was named the
Opener (Patulcius),
and the Shutter (Clusius)."
- Mary Ann Dwight, Grecian and Roman Mythology
"Ruler of new beginnings, gates and doors, the first hour of the day, the
first day of the month, and the first
month of the year, the Roman god Janus
gave January its name. He was pictured as two-headed (both heads
bearded)
and situated so that one head looked forward into the new year while the
other took a retrospective
view. Janus also presided over the temple
of peace, where the doors were opened only during wartime. It
was a
place of safety, where new beginnings and new resolutions could be forged,
just as the New Year is a
time for new objectives and renewed commitments to
long-term goals."
-
How January
Got Its Name
"New Year ceremonies are designed to
get rid of the past and to welcome the future. January is named after the Etruscan word janua which means door."
- New
Year's Customs
by Ester M. Sternberg
by Witold Rybczynski
by Clare Cooper Marcus
by Winnifred Gallagher
by Julie Messervy
"In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in
153 BC, declared
January 1st to be the beginning of
the new year. During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Year's
Day.
January 1st has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years."
- New Year's Day
"You'd be so lean, that blast of January
Would blow you through and through. Now, my fair'st friend,
I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might
Become your time of day."
- William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale,
Act IV Scene 4
"The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.
Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing dear can move me;
I will not, cannot go."
- Emily Bronte, Spellbound
"O Winter! frozen
pulse and heart of fire,
What loss is theirs who from thy kingdom turn
Dismayed, and think thy snow a sculptured urn
Of death! Far sooner in midsummer tire
The streams than under ice. June could not hire
Her roses to forego the strength they learn
In sleeping on thy breast."
- Helen Hunt
Jackson, A Calendar of Sonnets: January
"It is deep January. The sky is hard. The stalks are firmly
rooted in ice."
- Wallace Stevens, No Possum, No Sop, No Taters
"The hiss was now becoming a
roar - the whole world was a vast moving screen of snow - but even now it said peace, it said remoteness, it said cold, it said sleep."
- Conrad Aiken
Detailed annual calendar and engaging short essays. 
Great craft ideas.
"Time has no
divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm
or blare of trumpets to announce
the beginning of a new month or year.
Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who
ring bells and fire off pistols."
- Thomas Mann, The
Magic Mountain
"Dead of winter.
Cold hands warm heart.
As pure as snow.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
Now is the winter of our discontent.
Left out in the cold."
- Clichés
for Gardeners
"The door was shut, as doors should be,
Before you went to bed last night;
Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see,
And left your window silver white.
He must have waited till you slept;
And not a single word he spoke,
But pencilled o'er the panes and crept
Away again before you woke.
And now you cannot see the hills
Nor fields that stretch beyond the lane;
But there are fairer things than these
His fingers traced on every pane."
- Gabriel Setoun, Jack Frost
"The birds are gone, The
ground is white,
The winds are wild, They chill and bite;
The ground is thick with slush and sleet,
And I barely feel my feet."
- Winter
Poems
"The Snow-drop,
Winter's timid child,
Awakes to life, bedew'd with tears."
- Mary Robinson
"The trees down the boulevard
stand naked in thought,
Their abundant summery wordage silenced, caught
In the grim undertow; naked the trees confront
Implacable winter's long, cross-questioning brunt."
- D. H. Lawrence, Winter
in the Boulevard, 1916
"For this beauty,
beauty without strength,
chokes out life.
I want wind to break,
scatter these pink-stalks,
snap off their spiced heads,
fling them about with dead leaves --
spread the paths with twigs,
limbs broken off,
trail great pine branches,
hurled from some far wood
right across the melon-patch,
break pear and quince --
leave half-trees, torn, twisted
but showing the fight was valiant.
To blot out this garden
to forget, to find a new beauty
in some terrible
wind-tortured place."
- H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Sheltered
Garden, 1916
"An absolute
patience.
Trees stand
up to their knees in
fog. The fog
slowly flows
uphill.
White
cobwebs, the grass
leaning where deer
have looked for apples.
The woods
from brook to where
the top of the hill looks
over the fog, send up
not one bird.
So absolute, it is
no other than
happiness itself, a breathing
too quiet to hear."
- Denise Levertov, The
Breathing
by Kathy Ross 
by Joanne Weir
by Helen Thompson
by Nancy Castaldo
"Leaves
like rusty tin
for the desolate mind that has seen the end—
the barest glimmerings.
Leaves aswirl with gulls
made wild by winter."
- George Seferis, On a Ray of Winter Light
"Then sing, young hearts that
are full of cheer,
With never a thought of sorrow;
The old goes out, but the glad young year
Comes merrily in tomorrow."
- Emily Miller
"May the pot of prosperity boil over
May the Pongal that we cook,
the fragrance of turmeric
the taste of sugarcane, ginger and honey
Bring the joy of Pongal into our homes
May the blessings of the Sun God flood our lives."
- Bawarchi:
Indian Festivals: Pongal
"The twelve months...
Snowy, Flowy, Blowy,
Showery, Flowery, Bowery,
Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy,
Breeze, Sneezy, Freezy."
- George Ellis
"Every man should be born again on the first
day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole
more in
the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the
first day of January
let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the
front, and take no interest in the things
that were and are past."
- Henry Ward Beecher
"The Old Year has gone.
Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession
of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!"
- Edward Payson Powell
"The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run
Or bring more or more blazon man’s distress.
And I not help.
Nor word now of success:
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one—
Work which to see scarce so much as begun
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.
Or what is else?
There is your world within.
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.
Your will is law in that small commonweal…"
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Times Are Nightfall, Look, Their Light Grows Less
"That grand old poem called Winter"
- Henry David Thoreaqu
"January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow."
- Sara Coleridge, Pretty Lessons in Verse
"Winter is the
time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and
for a talk
beside the fire: it is the time for home."
- Edith Sitwell
"In the sniffed and poured
snow on the tip of the tongue of the year
That clouts the spittle like bubbles with broken rooms,
An enamoured man alone by the twigs of his eyes, two fires,
Camped in the drug-white shower of nerves and food,
Savours the lick of the times through a deadly wood of hair
In a wind that plucked a goose,
Nor ever, as the wild tongue breaks its tombs,
Rounds to look at the red, wagged root."
- Dylan Thomas, January, 1939
"Winter, a
lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey,
and enjoy every idle hour."
- John Boswell
For the Lakota Sioux (Eastern U.S.) the month of January was the period of "The Hardship Moon."
"Antisthenes says that in a certain
faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered,
and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer."
- Plutarch, Moralia
"We stand
watching the yellow leaves go queer,
flapping in the winter rain,
falling flat and washed. ...
I tell you what you’ll never really know:
all the medical hypothesis
that explained my brain will never be as true as these
stuck leaves letting go."
- Anne Sexton, The Double Image
"New Year's eve is like
every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment
of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has
quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights."
- Hamilton Wright Mabie
"Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies!
Life's a short summer, man a flower;
He dies, alas! how soon he dies!"
- Samuel Johnson, Winter - An Ode
"Look into the garden,
Where the grass was green;
Covered by the snowflakes,
Not a blade is seen.
Now the bare black bushes
All look soft and white.
Every twig is laden-
What a pretty sight!"
"Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm !
Sing : Goddam."
- Ezra Pound, Ancient Music
"Brew me a cup
for a winter's night.
For the wind howls loud and the furies fight;
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I'll toast our bright eyes,
my sweetheart fair."
- Minna Thomas Antrim
|
Months and Seasons Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Verses, Lore, Myths, Holidays Celebrations, Folklore, Reading, Links, Quotations Information, Weather, Gardening Chores Compiled by Mike Garofalo |
|||
| Winter | Spring | Summer | Fall |
| January | April | July | October |
| February | May | August | November |
| March | June | September | December |
"Ice
on the earth, bitter
black frost, and a winding sheet of snow
upon her withered breast, and
deep within me, dread
and ice."
- Jessica MacBeth, Winter
Poems
"Long yellow rushes
bending
above the white snow patches;
purple and gold ribbon
of the distant wood:
what an angle
you make with each other as
you lie there in contemplation."
- William Carlos Williams, January Morning - XII
"Rain and wind, and wind and rain.
Will the Summer come again?
Rain on houses, on the street,
Wetting all the people's feet,
Though they run with might and main.
Rain and wind, and wind and rain.
Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.
Will the Winter never go?
What do beggar children do
With no fire to cuddle to,
Perhaps with nowhere warm to go?
Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.
Hail and ice, and ice and hail,
Water frozen in the pail.
See the robins, brown and red,
They are waiting to be fed.
Poor dears, battling in the gale!
Hail and ice, and ice and hail."
- Katherine
Mansfield, Winter Song
"No one ever regarded the
First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and
count upon what is left. It is
the nativity of our common Adam."
- Charles Lamb
"There is
nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the
still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig,
is clad with radiance."
- William Sharp
"The New Year, like an
Infant Heir to the whole world, was waited for, with welcomes, presents, and rejoicings."
- Charles Dickens, The Chimes
"Of winter's lifeless world each
tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer's secret
Deep down within its heart."
- Charles G. Stater
"We meet today
To thank Thee for the era done,
And Thee for the opening one."
- John Greenleaf Whittier
"The first of January rolls around
Like clockwork it appears
I find it’s timing most profound
As it brings us each new year
Right on time, It’s never late
Has never ever blown it
Apparently this wise old date
Refuses to postpone it
Drink a toast to January one
For annual consistence
It’s coming means the old year’s done
Let’s drink to it’s persistence."
- Stanley Cooper,
Happy New Year, 1926
"Clouded with snow
The cold winds blow,
And shrill on leafless bough
The robin with its burning breast
Alone sings now.
The rayless sun,
Day's journey done,
Sheds its last ebbing light
On fields in leagues of beauty spread
Unearthly white.
Thick draws the dark,
And spark by spark,
The frost-fires kindle, and soon
Over that sea of frozen foam
Floats the white moon."
- Walter de La Mare, Winter
"When the bold
branches
Bid farewell to rainbow leaves -
Welcome wool sweaters."
- B. Cybrill
"This bright new year is given
me
To live each day with zest eloped in winter; the fleshy, in
summer. I should say winter had given the bone
and sinew to literature, summer
the tissues and the blood."
- John Burroughs
"In January
it's so nice
while slipping
on the sliding ice
to sip hot chicken soup with rice.
Sipping once
Sipping twice."
- Maurice Sendak, In January
"Frozen puddles--
the crack of axes
from four directions.
January sun--
puddle after puddle
becomes mud."
- Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings
- January
"The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty.
It fell and fell, lacing day and night
together in a milky
haze, making everything quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed
to partake of religion in a way no other
season did, hushed, solemn."
- Patricia Hampl
"Farewell, thy destiny is done,
Thy ebbing sands we tell,
Blended and set with centuries gone -
Thou dying year, farewell.
Gifts from thy hand - Spring's joyous
leaves,
And Summer's breathing flowers,
Autumn's bright fruit and bursting sheaves -
These blessings have been ours.
They pass with thee and now they seem
Like gifts from fairy spells
Or like some sweet remembered dream -
We bid those gifts farewell."
- Mrs. Jones, Thou Dying Year, Farewell
Montreal
Vindicator, January 6, 1829
"drinking tea
the morning fog
drifts away"
- Robert Gibson
"The sun came out,
And the snowman cried.
His tears ran down
on every side.
His tears ran down
Till the spot was cleared.
He cried so hard
That he disappeared."
- Margaret Hillert, January Thaw
"January gray is here,
Like a sexton by her grave;
February bears the bier,
March with grief doth howl and rave,
And April weeps-but, O ye hours!
Follow with May's fairest flowers."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Dirge for the Year
"Reeds, snake-like, coiled in the mist
Where the low fog drives:
The muddy cough of the stream that strives
To free its throat from the clot of reed,
As they fight it out the water and the weed--
While the fog, above, takes turn and twist:
Men, these are your lives!
Wild geese across the moon:
As some hand that unrolls
And scratches black names upon blood-red scrolls;
So seem these shadows, dipping, dying,
Black shapes on the red moon, screaming, flying,
Till the fog blots out, or late or soon:
Men, these are your souls!"
- Muriel Stuart, Wild Geese Across the Moon
"Every winter,
When the great sun has turned his face away,
The earth goes down into a vale of grief,
And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses."
- Charles Kingsley
"New Year's Day is everyman's birthday."
- Charles Lamb
"The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on."
- Carl Sandburg, The
Fog
"In
the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago."
- Christina Rossetti
"Ring out the old, ring in the
new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson
"Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.
Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.
Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.
When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.
Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake."
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Winter Time
"It's not the
case, though some might wish it so
Who from a window watch the blizzard blow
White riot through their branches vague and stark,
That they keep snug beneath their pelted bark.
They take affliction in until it jells
To crystal ice between their frozen cells ..."
- Richard
Wilbur, Orchard Trees - January
"To shorten
winter, borrow some money due in spring."
- W.J. Vogel
"Come, ye cold winds, at January's call,
On whistling wings, and with white flakes bestrew
The earth."
- John Ruskin
"Someone painted pictures on my
Windowpane last night --
Willow trees with trailing boughs
And flowers, frosty white,
And lovely crystal butterflies;
But when the morning sun
Touched them with its golden beams,
They vanished one by one."
- Helen Bayley Davis, Jack Frost
"winter landscape--
nothing
but cold"
- Issa
"To leave the old with a burst
of song,
To recall the right and forgive the wrong;
To forget the thing that blinds you fast
To the vain regrets of the year that's past."
- Robert B. Beattie, A Way to a Happy New Year
"Drop the last year into
the silent limbo of the past.
Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go."
- Brooks Atkinson
"Winter
dawn is the color of metal,
The trees stiffen into place like burnt nerves."
- Sylvia Plath, Waking in Winter
"One must have a mind of
winter
To regard the frost and boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not
to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves
Which is the sound of the
land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who
listens in the snow,
An, nothing himslef, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is."
- Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man, 1923
by Oliver Flippi
by Beth Chatto 
by Gale Weinstein
by Eric Johnson
by Kathleen Bresnel
by Ortho 
by Warren Jones 
"Now winter nights
enlarge
The number of their hours,
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze,
And cups o’erflow with wine;
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love,
While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights
Sleep’s leaden spells remove.
This time doth well dispense
With lovers’ long discourse;
Much speech hath some defence,
Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well;
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys
And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,
They shorten tedious nights."
- Thomas Champion, 1617, Now Winter Nights Enlarge
by Brian Nelson
by Christopher Hill
by Ian Corrigan. Thoughtful poems and rituals for seasonal holidays by a
lively and wise Druid Bard. 
by Ellen Evert Hopman
"January opens
The box of the year
And brings out days
That are bright and clear
And brings out days
That are cold and grey
And shouts, "Come see
What I brought today!"
- Leland B. Jacobs, January
"January is named for
Janus (Ianuarius),
the god of the doorway; the name has its beginnings in
Roman mythology, where the
Latin word for
door (ianua) comes from - January is the door to the year. Traditionally, the original
Roman calendar consisted of 10 months, totalling 304 days, winter being
considered a monthless period. Around
713 BC, the
semi-mythical successor of
Romulus, King
Numa Pompilius, is supposed to have added the months of January and
February,
allowing the calendar to equal a standard lunar year (355 days). The first day
of the month is known as
New
Year's Day. Although
March was
originally the first month in the old Roman Calendar, January assumed that
position beginning in
153 BC when the
two consuls,
for whom the years were named, began to be chosen on
January 1.
The reason for this shift of the new year into the dead of winter was to allow
the new consuls to complete the elections and ceremonies upon becoming consuls,
and still reach their respective consular armies by the start of the
campaigning. Various Christian feast dates were used for the
New Year in
Europe in the
Middle
Ages, including
March 25
and
December 25. However, medieval calendars were displayed in the Roman fashion
of twelve columns from January to
December.
Beginning in the
16th
century, European countries began officially making
January 1
the start of the New Year once again — sometimes called Circumcision Style
because this was the date of the
Feast of the Circumcision, being the 8th day from
December
25."
- January
- Wikipedia
"And ye, who have met with
Adversity's blast,
And been bow'd to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass'd
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury -
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen."
- Thomas Hood
"Have you ever
noticed a tree standing naked against the sky,
How beautiful it is?
All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness
There is a poem, there is a song.
Every leaf is gone and it is waiting for the spring.
When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with
The music of many leaves,
Which in due season fall and are blown away.
And this is the way of life."
- Krishnamurti
"See the pretty snowflakes
Falling from the sky;
On the wall and housetops
Soft and thick they lie.
On the window ledges,
On the branches bare;
Now how fast they gather,
Filling all the air.
Look into the garden,
Where the grass was green;
Covered by the snowflakes,
Not a blade is seen."
- Author Unknown, Falling Snow
"I am a little snowman.
I am so fat and round.
I started from a snowflake
that fell upon the ground.
I have two buttons for my eyes,
a great big scarf of red,
I have a carrot for a nose,
a hat upon my head.
Watch
me
as
I
melt
to
the
ground."
- Can Teach Songs,
The Snowman Song
"new year's eve-
in the echo of fog horns
another voyage starts"
- Keiko Izawa
"An important part in the winter landscape is played by the
dead grasses and other herbaceous plants, especially
by various members of the composite family, such as the asters, golden rods, and
sunflowers. Wreathed in snow
or encased in ice, they present a singularly graceful and fantastic appearance.
Or perhaps, the slender stalks
and branches armed with naked seed pods trace intricate and delicate shadows on
the smooth snow."
- Mrs. William Starr Dana
"Pale January lay
In its cradle day by day
Dead or living, hard to say."
- Alfred Austin, Primroses
"What shall I wish thee?
Treasures of earth?
Songs in the springtime,
Pleasure and mirth?
Flowers on thy pathway,
Skies ever clear?
Would this ensure thee
A Happy New Year?
What shall I wish thee?
What can be found
Bringing thee sunshine
All the year round?
Lasting and dear,
That shall ensure thee
A Happy New Year.
Faith that increaseth,
Walking in light;
Hope that aboundeth,
Happy and bright;
Love that is perfect,
Casting out fear;
These shall insure thee
A Happy New Year."
- Frances Ridley Havergal, A Happy New Year
"O thou
whose face hath felt the Winter's wind,
Whose eye has seen the snow-clouds hung in
mist
And the black elm tops 'mong the freezing
stars
To thee the spring will be
harvest-time.
O thou, whose only book has been the light
Of supreme darkness which thou feddest on
Night after night when Phœbus was away,
To thee the Spring shall be a triple morn.
O fret not after knowledge - I have none,
And yet my song comes native with the
warmth.
O fret not after knowledge - I have none,
And yet the Evening listens. He who saddens
At thought of idleness cannot be idle,
And he's awake who thinks himself asleep."
- John
Keats, O Thou Whose Face Hath Felt the Winter's Wind
"People hit
the sauce in a big way all winter.
Amidst blizzards they wrestle
unsuccessfully with the dark comedy
of their lives, laughter trapped
in their frigid gizzards. Meanwhile,
the mercury just plummets,
like a migrating duck blasted
out of the sky by some hunter
in a cap with fur earflaps."
- Amy Gerstler, A Severe Lack of Holiday Spirit
"January cold and desolate;
February dripping wet;
March wind ranges;
April changes;
Birds sing in tune
To flowers of May,
And sunny June
Brings longest day;
In scorched July
The storm-clouds fly,
Lightning-torn;
August bears corn,
September fruit;
In rough October
Earth must disrobe her;
Stars fall and shoot
In keen November;
And night is long
And cold is strong
In bleak December."
- Christina Giorgina Rossetti, The Months
"morning pond
the fog drifts into
a pair of swans"
- Rebecca Lilly
Astrological Signs: Capricorn, December 22 - January 19
Astrological Signs: Aquarius, January 20 - February 18
January Birthstones: Garnet
By her who in this month is born,
No gems save Garnets should be worn;
They will insure her constancy,
True friendship and fidelity.
Whatever you do on New Year's Day, you'll do often in the coming year!
For continued good fortune in love, kiss and hug your lover in the first minute of the New Year.
"Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly."
- William Shakespeare, Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
"Around the house flakes fly faster,
And all the berries are now gone
From holly and cotoneaster
Around the house.
The flakes fly! - faster
Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster
We use to see upon the lawn
Around the house.
Flakes fly faster
And all the berries are gone now."
- Thomas Hardy
"An optimist stays up
until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."
- Bill Vaughan
"An acre of ground contains
43,560 square feet. Consequently, a rainfall of 1 inch over 1 acre of ground
could
mean a total of 6,272,640 cubic inches of water. This is the equivalent of
3,630 cubic feet. As a cubic foot of pure
water weighs about 62.4 pounds,
it follows that the weight of a uniform coating of 1 inch of rain over 1 acre of
surface would be 226,512 pounds or about 113 short tons.The weight of 1 U.S.
gallon of pure water is about
8.345 pounds. Consequently, a rainfall of 1 inch
over 1 acre of ground would mean 27,143 gallons of water."
-
Farmers' Almanac
"JAN-U-ARY,
I love January.
Oh, JAN-U-ARY!
I can spell it, too.
With a J–A here,
And a N–U there.
Here an A, there an R,
Everywhere a Y,
Oh, JAN-U-ARY!
I love January!"
- Sung to the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm."
"Soon will set in the fitful weather, with fierce gales and sullen skies and frosty air, and it will be time to tuck up
safely my roses and lillies and the rest for their winter sleep beneath the snow,
where I never forget them, but
ever dream of their wakening in happy summers yet to be."
- Celia Thaxter
"Sundays too my father got up
early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?"
- Robert Hayden, Those Winter
Sundays
by Helen Thompson
by Sarah Ainley. Some good suggestions for beautiful gifts.
"When the ice of winter holds the
house in its rigid grip, when curtains are drawn against that vast frozen waste
of landscape, almost like a hibernating hedgehog I relish the security of being
withdrawn from all that summer
ferment that is long since past. Then is the time for reappraisal: to
spread out, limp and receptive, and let
garden thoughts rise to the surface. They emerge from some deep source of
stillness which the very fact of
winter has released."
- Mirabel Osler
"Raindrops Raindrops
Are such funny things.
They haven't feet or haven't wings.
Yet they sail through the air
With the greatest of ease,
And dance on the street
Wherever they please."
- Author Unknown
"Moonless winter night—
a billow of rising fog
hides the distant pines"
- Lenard D. Moore
"Spring, summer,
and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition."
- Mignon McLaughlin
"You think I am dead,"
The apple tree said,
"Because I have never a leaf to show-
Because I stoop,
And my branches droop,
And the dull gray mosses over me grow!
But I'm still alive in trunk
and shoot;
The buds of next May
I fold away-
But I pity the withered grass at my root."
"You think I am dead,"
The quick grass said,
"Because I have parted with stem and blade!
But under the ground,
I am safe and sound
With the snow's thick blanket over me laid.
I'm all alive, and ready to
shoot,
Should the spring of the year
Come dancing here-
But I pity the flower without branch or root."
"You think I am dead,"
A soft voice said,
"Because not a branch or root I own.
I never have died, but close
I hide
In a plumy seed that the wind has sown.
Patient I wait through the
long winter hours;
You will see me again-
I shall laugh at you then,
Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers."
- Edith M. Thomas
"I like these cold, gray
winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood."
- Bill Watterson
"light rain -
the open beak
of the bird"
- Yoav J. Tenembaum
January
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
French Medieval Book of Hours, 1412
Above the Fog Taoist and Zen Poems. By Michael P. Garofalo.
Ancient Origins of the Holidays
Anne's New Year Christian and Jewish customs.
Chinese New Year Links from Yahoo
Cloud Hands Blog By Michael Garofalo.
Cuttings - January Haiku and short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo.
January Holidays - Pagan Pathways
January - Quotes, Poems, Folklore, Links, Chores
February: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Links, Garden Chores.
German and German-American Customs, Traditions, and Origins of Holidays
Happy New Year Facts, Links, Poems, Songs. By Jeanne Pasero.
Kwanzaa Festival Information Center African-American Cultural Holiday Celebrations
Mrs. Bee's Busy Classroom - Weather Poems
New Year's Day - History, Traditions, Customs
New Year's Page by Christina O'Keeffe
New Year's Quotes, Stories and Prayers
Mystical World Wide Web - January
Poems and Feathers - Winter Poetry
Poems for a Long Winter's Night
Quotes for Gardeners. A collection of over 3,800 quotes arranged by 250 topics.
Seasons - Quotes for Gardeners
Songs and Poems for the Seasons
Traditional Customs and Folktales of January in England
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, French Medieval Book of Hours, 1412
Winter and Fall Poetry for Children
Winter and January Resources by Viki Blackwell
Winter and Snow Theme Page for Teachers
Winter Customs and Folklore in Austria
Winter Customs and Folklore in Germany
Winter Poetry at the Holiday Zone
Typical (Average/Normal)
Seasonal Weather
for Our Area, USDA Zone 9
Normally, in January, we have high daytime temperatures
of 54ºF, low nighttime temperatures of 37ºF, and get 4.2 inches of rain.
Cloud Hands Blog Follow the seasons in the Northern California garden of Karen and Mike with their notes, links, resources, quotes, poems, and photos.
Red Bluff, California, Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo
Weather Lore More Weather Lore Naturalist's Almanac
Weather Lore and Superstitions
Weather Sayings:
A wet January, a wet Spring.
A warm January, a cold May. (Welsh Proverb)
On New Year's Eve,
wrap a large rock with some rope and hang it from a branch.
One New Year's Morning:
If the rock is dry, good
weather will come to stay.
If the rock is wet, rain is on the way.
If the rock is moving, high winds will come at night.
If the rock is white, snow will fall tonight.
If the stone is gone, time for moving on.
The blackest month in all
the year
Is the month of Janiveer.
A favorable January brings us a good year.
In Janiveer if the sun
appear
March and April pay full dear.
If grain grows in January, there will be a year of great need.
January blossoms fill no man's cellar.
If birds begin to sing in January, frosts will come.
If January kalends be summerly gay,
'Twill be winterly weather to the kalends of May.
Jack Frost in Janiveer, Nips the nose of the nascent year.
If January has never a
drop, the barn will need an open prop
If in February there be no rain, it is neither good for hay nor grain.
March damp and warm, will do the farmer much harm.
April cold and wet, fills the barns best yet.
Cold May and windy, barn filleth up finely.
If Saint Paul's Day (1/25) be faire and cleare,
It doth betide a happy yeare;
But if by chance it then should rain,
It will make deare all kinds of graine;
And if ye clouds make dark ye skie,
Then neats and fowles this year shall die;
If blustering winds do blow aloft,
Then wars shall trouble ye realm full oft.
Typical
(Average/Normal) Seasonal Weather
for Our Area Normally, in January, we have high daytime temperatures of 54ºF, low nighttime
temperatures of 37ºF, and get 4.2 inches of rain.
Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo
Cloud Hands Blog Follow the seasons in the Northern California garden of Karen and Mike with their notes, links, resources, quotes, poems, and photos.
January Gardening Activities
and Chores in
Red Bluff
USDA Zone 9
Pruning leafless trees and shrubs.
Adding compost, ashes and fertilizer to the vegetable and flower gardens.
Taking cuttings from dormant figs, grapes, and other shrubs.
Spraying dormant fruit and other trees.
Weeding and mowing where needed.
Burning piles of gardening cuttings.
Fixing wood and metal fences.
Planting bare root trees and shrubs.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas outdoors or indoors.
Sharpening and oiling garden tools.
Protect tender plants from frosts.
Checking for and repairing any leaks in sheds.
Putting bare root trees into the ground.
Indoor activities: sorting seeds, planning, reading,
writing, etc.
Caring for indoor plants.
Weeding the winter garden.
Digging up dormant shrubs or trees you want to move.
Watering potted and ground plants as needed.
Adding Ironite and other soil supplements.
Fertilizing under trees and shrubs. I use a 16-16-16 mix.
Keeping tools and equipment out of the rain and moisture.
Browsing seed and garden catalogs.
Reading gardening, botany, and agricultural books.
Planning garden improvements for the new year.
Fixing any leaking roofs or rain gutters.
Putting any potted plants into the ground.
Keeping a journal. Writing a poem. Improving webpages. Adding
to your blog.
Taking a slow walk in the garden.
Taking photographs of your yard and gardens and outdoor scenes.
Removing dead and fallen branches and trees.
Doing Internet searching and reading.
January Gardening Chores and
Tips for Other U.S.A. Zones
Oak Hill January Tips - Georgia
Oregon State University January Tips
Earth Wise Creations January Tips - Zone 9
Seasonal Garden Chores - Links
Top Garden Projects for January by Ed Hume in the Pacific Northwest
52 Weeks in the California Garden by Richard Smaus
The Gay Gardener - Monthly Chores
Monthly Gardening January Tips from Ortho
Monthly Garden Tasks in an English County Garden
The Garden Helper Tips for January - Northern U.S.
Fruits and Nuts - January Tips - Virginia
Gardening Tips - January - New York Botanical Garden
Red Bluff Gardens - Comparison from 1998 - 2007
Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo
Cloud Hands Blog Follow the seasons in the Northern California garden of Karen and Mike with their notes, links, resources, quotes, poems, and photos.
Photographs Taken in January by Karen and Michael Garofalo
The Spirit of Gardening
Website
Over 3,800 Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Quips, One-Liners, Clichés, Quotes, and
Insights
Arranged by Over 250 Topics
Over 15 Megabytes of Text
Over 21 Million Webpages (excluding graphics) Served to Readers Around the World
From January 1, 1999 through March 1, 2011
This webpage has been online since January 1999
Compiled by Mike Garofalo from Red
Bluff, California
E-Mail
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Mike improve and maintain this webpage?
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and Affiliate Marketers
Last Updated: January 11, 2017
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