Hail to Janus!
Hail to Juno Covella!
Hail to Juno Lucina!
Hail to Mars!
May we honour both light and fertile growth!
May we honour the new year that is now dawning!
May we cherish the approaching and springing springtide
In our holding birth, the luminous and vernal promise as sacred!
Grant that time itself be now renewed,
And grant us the powers and patience to spin an even better year than those that have preceded!
Salve Iane!
Salve Iuno Covella!
Salve Iuno Lucina!
Salve Marte!

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The first of March is the New Year’s day of the Roman sacral year. Like all Kalends, it is sacred to Janus and Juno. But beside Juno Covella (diminutive of covus from cavus – the ‘hollow’ in the concave shape of the crescent moon), these March Kalends are also sacred to Juno Lucina (from lux ‘day’), the goddess of light and childbirth. The March Kalends became also known as the Matronalia in celebration of both the first day of the year and the year as a whole – with Juno as the maternal figure behind these. With her name as cognate to that of Jupiter, the lord of light, Juno is in essence the dawn-goddess, and Philocalus refers to this day as the ‘birthday’ of Mars, the ruddy god.

The March Kalends are described in the Fasti as NP – the only Kalends of the year to receive this designation. It was held that the sacred ancile or shield of Mars fell to Roman earth on this day. King Numa had eleven duplicates of the shield made so that  the original could not be discerned and possibly stolen. The twelve talismans are, however, the twelve months of the year codified into tangible expression and suggest the whole year itself as the protecting shield of the god Mars. Juno and Mars, mother and son, are auroral prototypes as well as a dyad expressive of feminine celestial luminosity and masculine terrestrial fertility and security.

If the surviving proto-carnival is now more a moment of quieter reflection and contemplation within the ribaldry of carnivalesque celebration, the Kalends of March are a return to full festive expression. On this day, carnival and New Year’s are combined. As the doorway to not only the month of March but also to the year as a whole, the day is sacred additionally to Janus, the god of entrances, new beginnings and passageways.