JANUARY, the first month in our present calendar, consists of thirty-one days. It was, however, not the first month of the year in the British Isles till the reformation of the calendar was made in 1752, when the legislature, by an Act passed in the preceding year, altered the mode of reckoning time from the Julian to the Gregorian style. At this period it was directed that the legal year which had commenced in some parts of the country on March 25, and in others with January, should thenceforward be appointed to begin always on the 1st of January. January derives its name from the god Janus, who had two faces looking in opposite directions, and Macrobius states that it was dedicated to him because, front its situation, it might be considered to be retrospective to the past and prospective to the opening year. The consecration of the month took place by an offering of meal, salt, frankincense, and wine, each of which was new. On the first of this month all enmities were suspended, presents were exchanged, consuls installed, 47.c. The principal festivals now observed in this month are the following : - Jan. 1, New Year's Day, Feast of the Circumcision ; Jan. 6, Epiphany, Twelfth-Day; and Jan. 25, Conversion of St Paul. See CALENDAR.