Where Did New Year’s Resolutions Come From?

Although New Year’s resolutions are most common in the Western Hemisphere, they are found all over the word. 

The ancient Babylonians were apparently the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, about 4,000 years ago. However, for them the year began not in January, but in mid-March when the crops were planted. During a 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king.  They made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any farm equipment they had borrowed.

The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named. The early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each new year beginning at the vernal equinox. It was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C. Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar consulted with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of his time. He introduced the Julian calendar, which closely resembles the calendar that most countries around the world use today.

Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honor  Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look both back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated the new year by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches, and attending raucous parties.

In the Medieval era, the knights took the “peacock vow” at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.

This tradition has other religious parallels. In Judaism. on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement),  the culmination of the Jewish New Year, Jews reflect upon their wrongdoings over the past year and seek forgiveness. And the practice of New Year’s resolutions came, in part, from the Lenten sacrifices of Christians. The concept, regardless of creed, is the annual reflection upon self-improvement.

Despite the tradition’s religious roots, New Year’s resolutions today are a secular practice. Instead of making promises to the gods, most people make resolutions  to themselves and focus purely on self-improvement. 

So Who Makes Resolutions? And Who Keeps Them?

At the end of the Great Depression, about 25% of American adults made New Year’s resolutions. At the beginning of the 21st century, about 40% did. And those who make common resolutions such as weight loss, increased exercising, or quitting smoking are at least ten times more likely to succeed compared with those who do not make resolutions.

Here are the most common reasons for people failing at their New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Unrealistic goals (35%)
2. Not keeping track of progress (33% )
3. Forgetting all about it (23%)
4.  Making too many resolutions (10%)

A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail despite the fact that over half of the study’s participants were confident of success at the beginning.

• Men achieved their goals more often when they engaged in specific goal setting.
• Women succeeded  more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

How Have Resolutions Changed?

Americans’ Resolutions for 1947 – Gallup Poll
1. Improve my disposition, be more understanding, control my temper
2. Improve my character, live a better life
3. Stop smoking, smoke less
4. Save more money
5. Stop drinking, drink less
6. Be more religious, go to church oftener
7. Be more efficient, do a better job
8. Take better care of my health
9. Take greater part in home life
10. Lose (or gain) weight

Americans’ Resolutions for 2014 – University of Scranton

1. Lose weight
2. Getting organized
3. Spend less, save more
4. Enjoy life to the fullest
5. Stay fit and healthy
6. Learn something exciting
7. Quit smoking
8. Help others in their dreams
9. Fall in love
10. Spend more time with family

P.S. Weight loss has obviously become important to us. As a nation, we’re the heaviest we’ve ever been. And along with the extra pounds come physical conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as social stigmas like bullying and weight discrimination. But Abigail Saguy, a sociology and gender studies professor at University of California, Los Angeles, points out that bodies — especially women’s bodies — have always been imbued with some kind of social meaning, and she suspects that people are more interested in enjoying the elevated status of a socially acceptable body than improved health outcomes

The Grammarian’s New Year’s Resolutions – 2016

Well, it has been two years since the last New Year ‘s Resolution Post. And we are probably still trying to lose weight, get to the gym more often, be a better parent or friend or spouse, stop smoking, write that book, start that new business, and on and on.  Well, here are some grammar resolutions for 2016 — and no, they aren’t the same ones as two years ago!

1. I resolve never to correct anyone’s grammar—except in a published book or on TV or radio where the speaker is getting paid money to talk! Don’t correct your friends — even on Facebook — unless they specifically ask.

2. I resolve to form an opinion about the Oxford comma and to feel no guilt whether I want to use it or not. But please, be consistent in your use within the same piece of writing. Either use it or don’t — unless something would be unclear without it — or with it.

3. I resolve to not even think about separating two sentences with a comma unless there is a conjunction (like and, but, or so) present. A comma alone cannot separate two complete sentences. Try a semicolon or a period.

4. I resolve to learn the forms of the darn verb “to lie”: to realize that it is so confusing because lay is the past tense of lie, in addition to being it own present tense verb — and that lain really is a word.

5. I resolve to never use its’,  because someone made it up. With all the confusion between its and it’s, the last thing we need is a third option! By the way, please also avoid on accident. It is by accident — but on purpose. And while we are at it, it’s not a whole nother story; it’s a whole other story. Or another whole story.

6. I resolve to pronounce the word mischievous correctly. The accent is on the first syllable (mis), and the last syllable is pronounced vus, not vius.

7. I resolve to learn how to spell out BBQ, and to realize that there is no Q in it at all (barbecue). And there is no ham in hamburger. . .

8. I resolve to eliminate or limit my use of a lot — and to always use it as two separate words.

9. I resolve not to put an s on toward (British use towards; American English uses toward, although no big deal). Also it is in regard to, not in regards to. And there is no such word as anyways — it is anyway.

10. I resolve to understand that good grammar improves my communication skills and the image I project to others. However, it isn’t everything. And if I can’t figure something out, there is always a good grammar book around –speaking of which . . .

The Grammarian’s New Year’s Resolutions – 2014