The Two faced Janus is misunderstood. 
The Two Faces are NOT representative of Duplicity. 
But instead, they represent a look Back to the Old Year (and or the Past),
a look forward to the New Year ( and or the Future).  
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Like days and weeks and months, years also come and go, except that these
make us aware we are growing in age. That is why it is not as traumatic for
some to peel a page from the calendar as to replace a calendar with one
with a larger number at the head.

We may picture the passage of time in spatial terms: a room which holds
the past within, and the space beyond, where the future lies, the entry door
separating the two. In this metaphor, we fling open the door to another
new year in our calendrical reckoning of the years. 

As a door has two faces,one looking inside and the other at the space beyond, 
so too this new month has two faces, one looking back into the accumulated 
past-years, and the other facing the future yet to be born. That is the significance 
of Janus: the two-faced God of the Romans, who is invoked as January in this, 
the first month of the year. 

Indeed Janus was the beginning of everything in the Roman world. He was 
the god of all exits and entrances. Hence all gates and doors were regarded 
as holy. In this, there is more than mythology: We see here a deep insight 
into the nature of Time, for between the has-been and the yet-to-come is the 
winking present that alone is perceived reality. The Hindu world pictured this 
as Shiva's third eye which transforms all to naught, as does every fleeting 
instant in the incessant stream of time. Christ is sometimes described as 
pater futuri seaculi: Father of Ages unborn.

In most traditions, as at one time among the ancient Romans too, the year
began with the onset of spring. It was March, the month of sowing, which
was the first of the months, making  - as their names still remind us -  the
months from September  to December  seventh (septem: seven) to the tenth
(decem: ten) months. Though this is the time of the year when the earth is
at its perihelion (closest to the sun in its elliptical orbit), 1 January
has no observed astronomical significance such as a solstice.

The little Temple for Janus that Claudius Duilus is said to have erected
in 260 BCE in the Forum Olitorium is buried in antiquity, alive only in the
obscure pages of history, but his name is here to stay in the calendars of
many peoples.

Who can tell what is in store for humanity for the year 2002? As always,
possibilities are immense and unpredictable, for good and for bad: The
discovery of a new and limitless non-polluting energy source could bring
about a golden age of prosperity for all of humanity. The rise to power of
a mindless maniac with nuclear capabilities could unleash irrevocable
devastation.  Education and science could free more humans from ignorance
and superstition, but scarce resources could deepen the chasm between the
haves and the have-nots. Religious and racial bigotry could fire simmering
suspicions into horrendous conflagrations, or perhaps the emergence of
enlightened religious outlook would foster understanding and harmony among
differing faiths and convictions. Or again, the long and checkered course
of human history could be snuffed into a mere glitch in the planet's saga by
the rude intrusion of a stray asteroid lured by earth's gravity.

Rarely has a year ended on such a dismal note as the last one, and rarely
has one begun a fear with such little promise of betterment. But we must
not give up. The flame of hope must be kept alive, whether with prayer or with
silent wishes, but above all with every individual effort we can muster to
snub inclinations to feel bitter or belligerent, to extend hands and
hearts of friendship to those who come our way, and  to right the wrongs the 
best we can.

May your thoughts and experiences in 2002 bring you good health and joy,
peace and love! It will be another 110 years before a year with this
symmetry in digits will come again.