What happened to New Year’s Resolutions?
Seems making New Year’s Resolutions have gone the way of the wind. When asked what resolution would be made for 2013, everyone questioned said, without fail, “I don’t make resolutions.”
What exactly is a resolution? An answer found in the dictionary is that a resolution is a commitment by a person to achieve one or more personal goals for the new year.
In year’s past, those proclaiming aloud, opted to lose weight, to stop smoking or to be kinder to others.
A study by the University of Wisconsin more than a decade ago, found 47 percent of Americans made resolutions. However, within two months, very few were found to have still been attempting to follow through.
The history of New Year and the ensuing resolutions can be traced to 2000 B.C. and the ancient Babylonians, who held their semi-annual festival in the spring and autumn. At that time, the Babylonians vowed to pay off debts and to return borrowed farm equipment.
The practice carried over to the ancient Romans when worshippers offered resolutions of good conduct to the god Janus. It was the Romans who decided Jan. 1 was as good a date as any to have a new beginning.
One has to wonder why Jan. 1 is the start of a new year. According to the website Happy New Year’s Day 2013 -The History, Traditions and Customs, the beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. In the spring, rebirth is the theme, with the planting of crops and of the blossoming flowers and trees, all signaling rebirth.
Jan. 1 has no astronomical or agricultural significance.
Back to Babylonia. That celebration lasted 11 days with a particular celebration on each day. Fast forward a century or two to the Romans, who decided the new year began in late March. Even that didn’t last, as a series of emperors kept changing the calendar until it was no longer synchronized with the sun.
Thanks to the Roman Senate in 153 B.C., Jan. 1 was declared as the beginning of a new year. Not ones to leave well enough alone, emperors continued to make changes until Julius Caesar established the Julian Calendar in 46 B.C. More than 2,000 years later, the modern world is still abiding by the Julian Calendar and celebrating New Year’s on Jan. 1.
The early Romans continued to celebrate Jan. 1, but in the first few centuries after the birth of Christ, the early Roman Catholic Church condemned the celebrations involving the new year. But as time moved forward, Christianity began to observe many religious holidays concurrent with some pagan celebrations. It was during the Middle Ages that the church opposed celebrating Jan. 1 as New Year’s Day.
Jump ahead to the late 1800s when the first Tournament of Roses Parade was held in 1886, when members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with flowers to celebrate the ripening of the orange crop in California. The Rose Bowl football game was first held in 1902, but was replaced by Roman chariot races until returning in 1916.
In 1907, Adolph Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, commissioned a globe studded with 216 electric lamps that fell from a 70-foot flagpole and the rest is history.
As for the baby in a diaper symbolizing the new year, well, that can be traced to the Greeks who used a baby to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus. The baby was paraded around in a basket, representing the rebirth of the god, though to be the spirit of fertility. In early Egypt, a baby was also used as a symbol of rebirth.
While resolutions have come and gone in popularity, many parts of the globe continue to associate food with the New Year.
In the Netherlands, the Dutch believe eating donuts will bring good luck. Not so good for those who make a resolution to lose weight.
In some parts of the United States, eating green-eyed peas are considered good luck if followed by hog jowls or ham, with pork, for some unknown reason, being considered good luck.
Cabbage is another good-luck food and a sign of prosperity. Rice, for some, is known as a lucky food.
In most cultures, any food that comes in a ring, like the donuts, is considered fortunate as a ring symbolized coming full circle.
And if making, and keeping a resolution, is vital, those who consider themselves “experts” in such things have a few suggestions: write the resolution down and keep trace of progress, and sharing with others are good ideas.