January Holidays, Traditions and More

January lights up the middle of winter (pardon me, Southern Hemisphere) 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 26^th is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Get to poppin'! Honorable mention: Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day, the 23^rd. 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 (1^st), JRR Tolkien (3^rd), Sir Isaac Newton (4^th), Joan of Arc (6^th), David Bowie (8^th), Rod Stewart (10^th), Faye Dunaway (14^th), Susan Sontag (16^th), Cary gRant (18^th), Dolly Parton (19^th), Edouard Manet (23^rd), Virginia Woolf (25^th), Paul Newman (26^th), Alan Alda (28^th), WC Fields (29^th), Jackie Robinson (31^st).

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 of Peñafort; 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:

September - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1017086/september_holidays_traditions_and_more.html?cat=7

October - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1051346/october_holidays_traditions_and_more.html?cat=74

November - November Holidays, Traditions and More - Associated Content

December - December Holidays, Traditions and More - Associated Content