Front Porch: Stefanie Pettit: If you don’t like the months of January and February, consider this

Just a few more days and January is over. Some people can’t wait. I don’t get it.

Frankly, I’ve never understood this hatred for the first month of the year. I love January. It and the month upcoming, February, are the only months with an interesting four syllables in their names and, unlike their 10 other calendar compatriots, are not spelled according to the way they’re pronounced. They’re just more grammatically interesting than their brethren. And that’s just for starters.

OK, I know some people have seasonal affective disorder, a depression that hits 10 million-plus Americans annually, usually brought on during cold-weather months when daylight hours are at their lowest ebb in the year. I don’t discount this at all, but many people are just hating on January because it comes after all the fun and excitement of Thanksgiving and everything that follows in December – including such outdoorsy things as the first snowfall, first snowman, ice skating, sledding and looking at the holiday lights.

By January, it’s all about slush, skidding on slick streets, potholes, icy fog – no more Hallmark moments strolling on snowy paths and looking forward to hot cocoa afterward. And if you come across a snowman, now leaning over and turning dark with grit, the inclination is to punch it in its distorted little ice-hardened face. If it’s all charming in December, can’t we hold on to the joy into January?

Apparently not.

But consider that there have been a lot of calendars created by various civilizations in history, but in 700 B.C. the Roman king amended the Roman calendar to add two months to it – January and February – and moved the start of the year from March to, ta dah, January! How’s that for prime status for an upstart new month?

January, named for the Roman god who oversees gates and doorways and is the god of beginnings and endings, is portrayed as two faces looking in opposite directions. Makes sense. It, along with six other months, has the most number of days (31). And February (Februarius, originally), named for Februa, the Roman festival of purification, has the fewest days (28). But, of course, every four years February is awarded an additional day to keep our astronomical house in order, giving it a pretty special status on the calendar.

February has a number of other old historical names as well, including “helmikuu” in Finnish, which means “month of the pearl,” referring to the droplets that form on tree branches when snow melts and refreezes into “pearls of ice” – both descriptive and charming.

How can these things not make January and February fascinating?

Sure, January is a long, cold and darkish month when gifts are returned, holiday bills come in, thoughts turn to taxes, heating bills go up, diets are started and abandoned and tempers shorten. It truly is the bah-humbug month.

But it shouldn’t be. It’s the month of beginnings. A new year. A new start. Yes it’s uncomfortable layering up to go outdoors, and falling on the ice is a serious thing for those of us of a certain age, but then again, sunburn or heatstroke in July is no picnic either. We live in a northern tier state, so get over it.

And realize that in addition to serious and significant observances such as Jan. 15 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and Jan. 16 (National Religious Freedom Day), the month offers such fun things to celebrate as National Popcorn Day (Jan. 19), with National Chocolate Cake Day still to be enjoyed this Saturday (Jan. 27). So bake something chocolatey and indulge. It’s a national observance day, so you have permission.

Once we move into February, I’m sorry to say, many of us are still grumpy, but Valentine’s Day looms out ahead (Feb. 14), so spirits do take a turn upward. However there’s so much more to the month. February is American Heart Month and Black History Month, but it’s also host to such festive events as the Super Bowl (Feb. 4) and Mardi Gras (Feb. 13). And for those of you looking for a reason to get outside, remember that it is also National Bird Feeder Month.

But the best, I think generally, is February 17 – National Random Acts of Kindness Day. And, frosting on that chocolate cake, every four years February brings the Winter Olympics, to be held this Feb. 9-25 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. For the duration of the Games, please know my husband and I will be preoccupied with that and kindly don’t ask too much of us.

A plethora of delights in January and February. And if none of that works for you, hold on to the fact that spring begins on March 20, just 54 days from today.

Voices correspondent Stefanie Pettit can be reached by e-mail at upwindsailor@comcast.net.