January opens the civil year, and in Israel it is also the coldest and wettest month of it. On the Hebrew calendar it is close to empty (the tail of Chanukah sometimes reaches into its first days, Tu BiShvat sometimes arrives at its end), and most of the time it is simply a month of routine: the middle of the school year, the middle of the rainy season, and days that have only just started lengthening again after the shortest day of the year.
Janus, the god with two faces
January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways, passages and beginnings, who was always shown with two faces: one looking ahead, one looking back. It is hard to improve on that as an image for a month that opens one year while still totting up the last.
January was not always first. The oldest Roman calendar had ten months and began in March; the dead weeks of winter were simply not counted. Roman tradition holds that January and February were added later, and it was only in 153 BCE that the consuls began taking office on 1 January, which is how that date became the start of the official year. Europe took its time following: many countries went on opening the year in March for centuries, and it was only after the Gregorian reform of 1582 that 1 January spread everywhere. England held out until 1752.
January around the world
The first of January is probably the single date most of humanity has in common: almost every country marks the civil new year on it, even those that keep a new year of their own somewhere else in the calendar.
January also carries dates that barely register in Israel. On the sixth, western churches mark Epiphany, closing the twelve days of Christmas. Eastern churches that stayed on the Julian calendar, now thirteen days behind the Gregorian one, keep Christmas on 7 January and a new year on the fourteenth.
Chinese New Year falls somewhere between 21 January and 20 February, because it too is counted on a lunisolar calendar: the same principle that slides the Jewish festivals around the civil year.
And on 27 January the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, set by the UN in 2005 on the date Auschwitz was liberated in 1945. It is a separate date from Israel''s Yom HaShoah, which is fixed to 27 Nisan on the Hebrew calendar and therefore falls in spring.
What January weather is like in Israel
January is the depth of the Israeli winter and, in most years on record, its rainiest month. Tel Aviv typically runs between about 10°C at night and 18°C by day, Jerusalem between roughly 6°C and 12°C, while Eilat can still touch 21°C at midday.
Most of the year's rain falls between December and February, and January takes the largest share of it: a run of storms coming in off the sea, several grey days in a row, then a bright cold snap. Snow in Jerusalem is not an annual event but is far from unheard of, and on the Golan and Mount Hermon it is more or less expected. The sea sits at about 17°C and the beaches are empty.
The compensation is light. Sunset moves from around 16:50 at the start of the month to past 17:15 by its end, and the difference is easy to feel.
Jewish dates that fall in January
January is one of the emptiest months on the Hebrew calendar, though not entirely so. It usually spans the end of Tevet and the beginning of Shevat, and three dates can land in it:
- Chanukah: the eight days begin on 25 Kislev and almost always sit in December, but when the festival starts late its final days run on into the first days of January.
- The Tenth of Tevet: a short fast from dawn to nightfall, marking the start of the siege of Jerusalem. It falls in December or January depending on the year.
- Tu BiShvat: the new year for trees falls between mid-January and mid-February, and in early years it closes January with a table of dried fruit and the first almond tree in blossom.
Every date of the year in one table: the annual holidays calendar.
Common questions about January
Which Hebrew months does January cover?
In most years January spans the end of Tevet and the beginning of Shevat. The Hebrew year is about eleven days shorter than the civil one, so the overlap shifts annually. The grid above prints both dates in every cell.
When is Rosh Chodesh in January?
The Hebrew new moon has nothing to do with 1 January; it falls somewhere in the middle of the civil month. January usually contains one Rosh Chodesh, that of Shevat, and in some years it runs for two days. This year: Rosh Chodesh Shevat: 21/1/34.
How many days are in January?
Thirty-one, always. January is one of the seven long months of the civil calendar.
Are there any Jewish holidays in January?
Very few. Some years the last days of Chanukah fall in it, other years Tu BiShvat, and sometimes the fast of the Tenth of Tevet. There is no festival day of rest in January at all.
Is 1 January a holiday in Israel?
No. It is an ordinary working and school day. The civil year opens on it; the Hebrew year opens on Rosh Hashanah, in Tishrei.
Printing a January calendar
The grid at the top of this page shows January as a full civil month, from the 1st to the 31st: the large numerals are the civil dates, with the matching Hebrew date beside each one, plus the Sabbaths and their Torah portions and any festival falling in the month. The button above the grid prints it to a single page, portrait or landscape, without the navigation or this text.
- Every date of the year with its own page: the annual holidays calendar
- The full printable year: home page
- For a Hebrew-month view, in which Tevet and Shevat each appear whole: Hebrew month calendar