Studies show most New Year’s resolutions are bound to fail, yet we keep still making them – and have been doing so since the time of the ancient Babylonians.
The clock is ticking once again to a New Year, and millions of Americans are right now making promises they probably won’t keep. Studies show most New Year’s resolutions (such as getting into shape, or eating more healthily) are bound to fail. But did you know we’ve been failing at them for thousands of years?
Candida Moss, a historian and professor of theology at the University of Birmingham, says annual attempts at self-improvement are as old as the celebrating of New Year’s itself. “Even if we go very far back in history, we can find people trying to kind of orchestrate a fresh start at the New Year’s through resolutions,” she said. “The ancient Babylonians had a big celebration, almost two weeks long, where they celebrated the New Year around springtime in March or April. And they would make resolutions. And they were small – pay off small debts, small vows about better behavior. And the Romans would do the same thing.”
In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar created a new Roman calendar that started the New Year on the first day of January. January was named for the Roman god Janus, whose two faces look both forward and back. According to Moss, “That’s really important for how we think about New Year’s as a kind of taking stock and starting again.
