(SBA) - Do you make New Years’ resolutions and if so, have you already broken them? You’re so, alone. Most people break resolutions at least once during the first week of the new year and the preponderance of resolutions are all but forgotten by the end of each January. Yet, the practice of making resolutions is nothing new; in fact, the concept of resolving to do something differently in a new year is thousands of years old. The word “resolution” entered the English vocabulary as early as the 14th century and was defined as the “process of reducing things into simpler forms”. By the 19th century the term had come to signify an expression of intent and although nothing restricted the practice to the beginning of a new year, the logic assumes that a new beginning should be part of a logical date—something like deciding to begin a new diet on a Monday. Particularly after a hedonistic (food-wise) weekend.
An unknown writer, appearing in a Boston newspaper in 1813 said, “Multitudes of people…will sin all the month of December with a serious determination to begin the new year with new resolutions and new behavior and with the full belief that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults.” (Merriam Webster). The obscure English writer Anne Halkett pledged on January 2, 1671, to a list of Bible-inspired resolutions in her diary. No follow-up indicates whether she was successful in her efforts.
As early as 2000 BC, the Babylonians celebrated the new year with a 12-day festival called “Akitu”. This time of year marked the beginning of the farming season when the people crowned a new king, thanked their gods for a successful previous harvest and resolved to return borrowed farming equipment to their neighbors. (Old Farmer’s Almanac) Alexis McCrossen, a professor at Southern Methodist University, says that the ancient Romans were the first to associate January 1st with New Year’s resolutions. These people celebrated the start of January by giving offerings to the month’s namesake, Janus—the two-faced god of beginnings and endings and the giving of important gifts to their loved ones—like twigs from sacred trees. Soon, other cultures came to view the new year as a time for self-reflection and resolutions to do better. One such medieval practice, the “Vow of the Peacock” called for knights to renew their vows of chivalry by placing their hands on the feathers of the live birds. Nothing exists to tell how the peacocks felt about this practice! John Quincy Adams, the sixth U.S. President and a well-known diarist, reflected in his writing on his own spiritual acts from the previous year and his resolution to do better in the next.
It was not until the 20th century, however, that the practice of celebrating New Year’s as a holiday emerged. Prior to that time, January 1st didn’t hold much significance, no doubt because until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, England and her colonies, under the Julian calendar, observed the beginning of each year on March 25th. Still, January 1st was notable predominantly from a fiscal perspective as a day for paying off debts and resolving not to incur additional debts in the future. As most debts were settled in person, the practice arose of visiting those you knew and socializing there. In larger cities, the more affluent would host open houses on that day. In Washington, DC, the sitting President would host a gathering so that any person could come to the White House and shake the President’s hand. Baptists, Methodists and other evangelical churches began holding “Watch Night” services late on New Year’s Eve permitting parishioners to reflect on their short comings from the previous year. At midnight, the pastor would announce the arrival of the new year and those present would rejoice in the realization that another year had passed and that they were free to begin the new year afresh. German immigrants brought the practice of “Silversterabend,” celebrating at midnight on December 31st with song, dance and toasts to the new year ahead.
With the arrival of electric lighting and the first illuminated New Year’s ball drop in 1907, the holiday and the practice of resolutions was popularized in U.S. newspapers. Writers, both famous and anonymous, would publish their intentions for the year to come. With the advent of World War I, newspapers urged citizens to buy Liberty bonds and ration their food. Although early resolutions were more spiritual in nature, today such promises tend to be more practical. Faith-based resolutions may have future repercussions which may explain why they are no longer as popular, but most people limit their hoped-for practices to diet, exercise, the elimination of nasty habits (smoking, chewing or excessive drinking, for example) or resolving to spend less and to save more. Regardless of whether you have made such resolutions and, particularly if you have already broken them, allow yourself some grace. Perhaps the best resolution would be to practice the Golden Rule. Being kind has no intrinsic cost yet can yield such plentiful results.
