January lights up the middle of winter with the celebration of the New Year and the orgy of eating, drinking and merrymaking, followed inevitably by resolution-making, that we all know and love. In Japan, where New Year's Day is also celebrated on January first, it is customary to dress up in traditional kimono and call or visit all of your relatives. Those of you born in January have plenty to celebrate besides your birthday and New Year's, though. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is one, and here's a bunch more:
Monthly Observances
January is National Clean Up Your Computer Month, although whether this means you should wipe down your CPU, organize your files or get rid of all your downloaded porn is unclear. It is also the National Month for glaucoma awareness, hot tea, mail order gardening, getting organized, mentoring, personal self-defense awareness (in case your mentor gets a little too friendly?), radon action, skating, and blood donation, and the International Month for changing your stars, creativity, New Year's resolutions for businesses (here's one: Stop wasting money!), quality of life, wayfinding, and wealth mentality.
In addition, January is also Book Blitz Month, as well as the month for birth defects awareness, celebration of life, cervical cancer screening, family fit lifestyle, financial wellness, oatmeal, thyroid awareness, and California dried plum digestion, although I should think we don't need a whole month to contemplate something that only takes, like, fifteen seconds.
Weirdest Holiday
The 26th is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Get to poppin'! Honorable mention: Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day, the 23rd. I don't know what this is, but it sounds intriguing!
January Traditions
Flower: carnation - fascination, distinction
Birthstone: garnet - constancy, truth
Capricorn's gem: ruby - glory, freedom from care
Zodiac sign: Capricorn (1- 20) and Aquarius (21-31; see February for details). Capricorns are earth signs: stable and dependable, like the ground under your feet. Capricorns are especially geared to workplace success, but please try to climb the corporate ladder without too much backstabbing! Best friends: Taurus and Virgo. Best love matches: Scorpio, Cancer, Pisces.
Famous Birthdays: J.D..Salinger (1st), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (2nd), JRR Tolkien (3rd), Sir Isaac Newton (4th), Marilyn Manson (5th), Joan of Arc (6th), Nicolas Cage (7th), David Bowie (8th), (9th), Rod Stewart (10th), Alexander Hamilton (11th), Kirstie Alley (12th), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (13th), Faye Dunaway (14th), Martin Luther King, Jr. (15th), Susan Sontag (16th), James Earl Jones (17th), Cary Grant (18th), Dolly Parton (19th), Buzz Aldrin (20th), Jack Nicklaus (21st), DJ Jazzy Jeff (22nd), Edouard Manet (23rd), Mary Lou Retton (24th), Virginia Woolf (25th), Paul Newman (26th), Lewis Carroll (27th), Alan Alda (28th), WC Fields (29th), King Abdullah II of Jordan (30th), Jackie Robinson (31st).
Catholic Feast Days
1- Feast of St Clarus; St Odilo; St Peter of Atroa; St Telemachus
2 - Feast of St Adelard; St Basil the Great; St Gregory of Nazianzen; St Macarius the Younger; St Abel; St Munchin
3- Feast of Ste Genevieve; St Daniel of Padua
4 - Feast of Ste Angela of Foligno; Ste Pharaildis; Ste Elizabeth Seton
5 - Feast of St Edward the Confessor; St Gerlac; St Simeon Stylites; St John Neumann
6 - Feast of the Epiphany; St Macra
7 - Feast of St Aldric; St Raymond; St Reinold
8 - Feast of Ste Gudula; St Severinus of Noricum
9- Feast of Ste Basilissa, St Adrian of Canterbury, St Philip of Moscow
10- Feast of St Agatho, St Benincasa, St Evagrius Ponticus, St Gonzalvo, St Gregory X, St John Camillus Bonus, St Marcian of Constantinople, St Nicanor, St Peter Urseleno, St Petronius of Avignon, Ste Sethrida, St Thomian, St William of Bourges
11- Feast of St Balthasar, St Vitalis of Gaza
12- Feast of St Benet Biscop, St Arcadius of Mauritania, Ste Marina and Ste Tatinia
13- Feast of St Hilary of Poitiers
14- Feast of St Felix of Nola, St Mungo (Kentigern), St Sava the Enlightener
15- Feast of St Maurus, St Paul the Hermit, St Ita
16- Feast of Ste Priscilla, St Fursey, St Marcellus
17- Feast of St Anthony the Great, Ste Devota, Ste Roseline
18- Feast of Ste Margaret of Hungary, Ste Beatrix d'Este, St Volusian
19- Feast of St Canute, St Fillan, St Henry of Uppsala, St Wulfstan
20- Feast of St Fabian, St Sebastian
21- Feast of Ste Agnes, Ste Inez, St Lawdog
22- Feast of Ste Bleasilla, Ste Laura Vicuña, St Vincent of Saragossa, St Dominic of Sora
23- Feast of Ste Emerentiana, St John the Almsgiver, St Ildefonsus
24- Feast of St Francis de Sales, St Zamma
25- Feast of Ste Dwyn, St Conan, St Poppo, St Prix
26- Feast of Ste Paula, St Timothy, St Titus
27- Feast of St Avitus, Ste Angela Merici, St Julian of Le Mans
28- Feast of the Blessed Charlemagne, St Thomas Aquinas
29- Feast of St Gildas the Wise, St Dallan Forgaill
30- Feast of St Adelem, Ste Aldegund, Ste Bathilde, Ste Martina, Ste Hyacinth of Maniscotti
31- Feast of St John Bosco, Ste Tryphaena, Ste Marcella, Ste Louise degli Albertoni, Ste Mary Cristina, Ste Paula Gambra-Costa
Check out these other months:
February - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/02/your-february-birthday-february.html
May - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/05/your-may-birthday-may-holidays.html
June - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2017/05/your-june-birthday-holidays-traditions.html
July - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2017/07/your-july-birthday-july-holidays.html
August - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/07/your-august-birthday-august-holidays.html
September - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2019/08/your-september-birthday-september.html
October - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/09/your-october-birthday-october-holidays.html
November - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2017/10/your-november-birthday-november.html
June - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2017/05/your-june-birthday-holidays-traditions.html
July - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2017/07/your-july-birthday-july-holidays.html
August - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/07/your-august-birthday-august-holidays.html
September - https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2019/08/your-september-birthday-september.html
October - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/09/your-october-birthday-october-holidays.html
November - http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2017/10/your-november-birthday-november.html
Carnation image from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/carnation-blossom-bloom-pink-1323882/
