Since I was little I have always imagined the year as a circle (more of an annulus, really), and the current date, no matter the year, as a point on it. Nothing strange there, abstract concepts always presented themselves as visual images to me. What is totally unaccountable is that the start of the year is about 10 degrees off the horizontal, which puts 0 somewhere between the solstice and Christmas. Creepy. Either the collective unconscious has insisted on an older representation of the year than the Julian calendar, or else I really thought Christmas was the most important day of the year.