WELCOME TO An Entertainment Site for Scottish Country Dancers - Enjoy the curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Winter Dancing, Brian Kershishnik
January Jigs
Jan 4
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"Janus am I; oldest of potentates;
Forward I look, and backward, and below I count, as god of avenues and gates,
The years that through my portals come and go."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807â1882)
Get those January Jigs in the program early, you never know when the powers that be might change the dates on you! Calendar keeping has always been a challenge. The original Roman calendar began in March, had only 10 months, and excluded winter days. Around 710â700 BC, January and February were added to create a 354-day lunar calendar, with January chosen as the new first month due to its proximity to the winter solstice. An extra month, Intercalaris, was occasionally added to address leap years and short months.
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar reformed the calendar to match the solar year of 365 days, creating the Julian Calendar. Later, the Calendar (New Style) Act of 1750 replaced it with the Gregorian Calendar, revised the leap year formula, and moved the legal start of the year from March 25 to January 1. To implement the change, 11 days were dropped in September 1752, with Britons going to bed on September 2 and waking up on September 14! Some enterprising dancers made good use of this calendar change. One North Staffordshire gentleman, a William Willett of Endon, seeing an opportunity, wagered he could dance non-stop for 12 days and nights. Starting his jig on the evening of September 2, he danced through the night and, by the new calendar, stopped triumphantly on September 14 to claim his winnings! Jiggedy-jig indeed! ðĪŠ ðĻïļ ð ðš ð
January Jig
January, on average, is the coldest month of the year within most of the Northern Hemisphere (where it is the second month of winter) and the warmest month of the year within most of the Southern Hemisphere (where it is the second month of summer).
January (in Latin, Ianuarius) is named after Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, protector of gates and doorways.
Traditionally, the original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months only 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).
Historical names for January include its original Roman designation, Ianuarius, the Saxon term Wulf-monath (meaning "wolf month") and Charlemagne's designation Wintarmanoth ("winter/cold month").
For a discussion on poetry associate with the "barren month" of January (for us Northern Hemispherians), click the more cheerful scene of skaters from the 1820s.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
