Lara Folsom, age 14, of Greenville, miss., for her question:

HOW WAS JANUARY  NAMED?

First month of the year in the Gregorian calendar is with 31 days. The name of the month is derived from Janus, the Roman god of gates and doors, and hence of new openings and new beginnings was the 11th month of the year in the ancient Roman calendar. In the second century B.C., however, it came to be regarded as the first month.

Only  the Romans used to offer sacrifices to Janus so that he would bless the new year. Janus' principal temple in the Forum had doors facing east and west for the beginning and ending of the day, and between them stood his statue with two faces, gazing in opposite directions. In every home the morning prayer was addressed to him and in every domestic undertaking his assistance was sought.

As the god of new beginnings, Janus was publicly invoked on the first day of    because he began a new year. He was also invoked at the beginning of wars, during which the doors in his Forum temple were always standing open. When Rome was at peace, the doors were closed.