I must, I must, I must improve my… (The history of the New Year’s Resolution)
But who thought up such an impossible tradition and why do we seem habitually incapable of keeping our New Year’s resolutions? It is widely believed to have all started with the Romans – like so many things in our lives – who back in 153 BC created a calendar with the first month named after the two-headed god of doorways, gates, beginnings and endings – Janus. Now of course we’re not talking about the first calendar that the Romans had created, as the earlier lunar calendar – believed to have been created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in 753 BC – only contained ten months. Nor do we mean the revised version of 713 BC, attributed to Numa Pompilius, who was the first to use 12 months and the first to name a month after Janus (although January, as it is now known, was then positioned where November is today). And we’re not even talking about the modern or Gregorian calendar, developed in 1582 by Aloysius Lilius and named after Pope Gregory XIII. Nope, the reason why the 153 BC edition has significance is because the month named after Janus was moved to the beginning of the calendar. Janus is depicted as a two-headed figure able to look both backwards into the events of the old year and forwards to the new, so the Romans started the tradition of the New Year’s resolution by using this time to seek forgiveness from those they had wronged…or did they? If the motivation for a New Year’s resolution is repentance for things you have done wrong then the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur is far, far older – dated at somewhere between 1200 and 1600 BC, when Moses came back from the Mount Sinai branch of WHSmith with the second printing of the ten commandments and God forgave the people of Israel for coveting a false idol. Jewish tradition states that God inscribes each person’s fate for the coming year in the book of judgment on Rosh Hashanah and waits the ten days until Yom Kippur to “seal” the verdict. Over the ten days between the two holidays they are given the opportunity to amend their behaviour and seek forgiveness for wrongs they have committed against God and their fellow man (or woman) – ten days to actually change their ways. A recent study by students with way too much time on their hands at Hertfordshire University gives us an insight into the reasons for our inability to keep our New Year’s resolutions. It turns out that it’s not “what” we say we’re going to do, but “how” we say it that counts. For us chaps, the Devil’s in the detail. Apparently we’ll be 22% more likely to stick by our New Year promises to ourselves if we set defined achievable goals – for instance, saying we’ll lose a couple of pounds a week rather than simply promising to lose weight. For the ladies the trick is publicity: the more people you tell about your New Year’s resolutions, the more likely you are to stick to them – 10% more likely, according to the study. So if you woke up on 1 January with a vague recollection of New Year’s resolutions decided upon the night before, tell your friends and family and set yourself manageable targets, repent a little, tell someone you’ve wronged that you’re sorry and don’t worship false idols – that should about cover you for a good new year. Happy 2009, everyone. Source: Image © Anna Gearhart
The Exodus
Yom Kippur
Janus (mythology)
What is the origin of New Year’s resolutions?
Resolution solution
