The Origins of New Year’s Resolutions

by Rebecca Stone

The start of January, appropriately named after the two- faced Roman god Janus (one face looking back, one looking ahead) is the time to look through the past year, and cathartically answer the question: how will you change yourself this New Year? For some, this may be to give up chocolate, or to work harder, or to start exercising regularly. However, looking back to approximately four thousand years ago, the original New Year’s resolutions would have been extremely different.

The first recorded origin of New Year’s resolutions can be traced back to the ancient Babylonians. Although their New Year began in what is our March, a more appropriate time for a year to begin, with the planting of new crops, they were seen to have started the tradition of making promises to one’s self and the gods. To celebrate the new year, a twelve-day festival, called Akitu, would be held, with sacrifices to their Pagan gods. The Babylonians also made promises to pay their debts and carry on observing their religious practices through the next year. If they kept these promises, they would please the gods and the gods would bless their year, and harmony would rule over the land, as well as the new king they appointed at this festival.

Similarly to this, the ancient Egyptians made sacrifices to their god of the River Nile, Hapi, for a fruitive and fertile year. The Romans, after Julius Caesar altered the ten-month calendar to the twelve-month Julian Calendar, starting on January 1st, made promises of good conduct to the god, Janus. In the mid-eighteenth century, Christians viewed New Years as a time to look back at their failings from the past year, and make resolutions for the future. John Wesley, in 1740, introduced the Watchnight Service on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, for readings, prayer and singing.

Today, even though our New Year’s resolutions do not normally relate to our religious beliefs and practices, the act of looking back to make ourselves better has been repeated for the last four thousand years.

But how many of these actually last past 3rd January?