In Roman mythology, the god Janus is depicted with two faces, one looking forward, the other looking backward. As the guardian of doors and gates, Janus became the patron of beginnings and endings, since one symbolically passes through a door when entering something new. January, appropriately named for Janus, represents the portal of a new year, a time to selectively remember the past, but moreover, a time to establish a passage with new challenges, new goals, new accomplishments.