They celebrated the start of January by giving offerings to the month's namesake, Janus - the two-faced god of beginnings and endings - and auspicious gifts (like twigs from sacred trees) to their loved ones. "It was a day to make promises and offerings," McCrossen says. "I think that's the origin of our New Year's resolution, because a resolution is a kind of promise."
When I was a kid, living in Lawrenceville, Virginia, I heard tales about how the James River was haunted: perhaps by the spirits of Indigenous people who were forced off this land, or maybe by those who gave their lives to revolution, or maybe by enslaved men, women, and children who drowned while trying to escape their plantations. The ghost stories seemed to suit a river that's connected to America's soul.