“Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.
“Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.”
– From “Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye
With all of the terrible impact of COVID-19, we have had a very tough 2020. In fact, most of us would probably prefer to skip this year altogether. Soon, we well observe New Years. If there is ever a time to celebrate the coming of a new year, this is it. New Years also traditionally involves making resolutions about how we can can improve for the future.
A recent Finder survey reveals an estimated 188.9 million adult Americans (74.02% of the population) say they’re determined to learn something new, make a lifestyle change or set a personal goal in an effort to better themselves in 2021, a 15.17% increase from the previous year. The top six categories that keep us to this holiday tradition relate to money, health, career, self-improvement, family, and love.
The survey found that 141.1 million adult Americans – or 55.31% of all American adults – think that following through on their New Year’s resolutions is well within the cards.
(Catherine Choi. “New Year’s resolution statistics. Finder. December 04, 2020.)
But sadly, according to research from Monroe Clinic, only 8 percent of those making resolutions are successful in achieving their goals. (Didn't we already know that from personal experience?) However, it's clear that millions of people will make New Year's resolutions with good intention once more. Maybe struggling through this pandemic has given us more will power and increase the low percentage of successful resolutions in 2021.
(“Only 8% of people achiever their New Year's Resolutions. Monroe Clinic. 2020.)
The History of Resolutions
How did humans ever start making New Year's resolutions? Religion has deep roots in the practice. But today, instead of making promises to the gods, most people make resolutions only to themselves, and focus purely on self-improvement. Let's look at the history of making resolutions.
Walk Like an Egyptian
In ancient Egypt 5,000 years ago, people took part in a celebration called “Wepet Renpet,” which translates to "opening of the year." Although there's no documented history of New Year's resolutions this early on, historians know that ancient Egyptians did celebrate the turn of the year -- with plenty of food, alcohol and sex, characteristics that stand in modern New Year celebrations. (Some things never change.)
Ancient Egyptians didn't celebrate New Years in January. According to History.com, Wepet Renpet appears to have coincided with the Nile river's annual flood, which happened around midsummer. The flood of the river meant farmlands would be fertile for the year to come – plenty of reason to celebrate when your life depends on agriculture.
By the Rivers of Babylon
Historians believe the ancient Babylonians were the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations in honor of the new year. They observed this in mid-March, when the crops were planted. During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king. In fact, ancient Babylonians referred to this festival as “rêš šattim,” or the "beginning of the year.”
After visiting all the proper temples, receiving an oracle from the supreme god Marduk about “the glorious future” and sharing statues of the gods with the Babylonian populace, the king and the “parliament” announced the official policy for the next year. (One is reminded of the State of the Union speech by the president.)
(“Akitu Festival.” Livius.org.)
These ancient people also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises are widely considered to be the forerunners of modern New Year’s resolutions. The Babylonians believed if they kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor.
(Amand Capritto. “The history of New Year's resolutions and celebrations.” C/NetDecember 01, 2020.)
Et tu, Brute?
The ancient Romans – thanks to the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar – established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. With his two faces, Janus symbolically looked back into the previous year and forwards into the new year. Janus held a staff in his right hand, in order to guide travelers along the correct route, and a key in his left to open gates.
Romans believed that the month of January was added to the calendar by Numa. The association between Janus and the calendar was cemented by the construction of 12 altars, one for each month of the year, in Janus's temple in the Forum Holitorium (the vegetable market). The poet Martial thus described Janus as "the progenitor and father of the years.”
From 153 BC onwards, the consuls (the chief magistrates of the Republic) took office on the first day of January (which the Romans called the Kalends). The new consuls offered prayers to Janus, and priests dedicated “spelt” (wheat) mixed with salt and a traditional barley cake, known as the “ianual,” to the god. Romans distributed New Year's gifts of dates, figs, and honey to their friends, in the hope that the year ahead would turn out to be sweet, as well as coins – a sign of hoped-for prosperity. And, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.
(Caillan Davenport. “How Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings, would celebrate 2018.” ABC News. December 31, 2017.)
(K)Nights in White Satin
Medieval people didn't always celebrate New Years on January 1. In fact, many New Year’s celebrations were held on March 25th known as The Feast of the Annunciation, a religious holiday that celebrated the coming of the Angel Gabriel to Mary with news that she would bear God a son. The streets would be filled with processions, and people would make offerings to Mary.
In some places, like Venice, the New Year began on March 1st, and in others, it began on Christmas or on Easter. The Anglo-Saxons celebrated December 25th as the New Year, but this switched to March 25th in the later Middle Ages, and then to January 1st in the 18th century.
A popular medieval festival originated in France and was celebrated on January 1st, where a mock ecclesiastical court was held, complete with a mock pope. It was a day where the tables were turned and the lower classes dressed up and poked fun at the upper classes, harking back to the Pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia, where slaves were able to to speak freely, criticize their masters without punishment, and enjoyed a feast. During this Feast of Fools, there was plenty of cross dressing, gambling, drinking, and risqué behavior. Naturally, this didn’t sit well with the Church and after repeated pressure and regulation attempts by ecclesiastic officials, the tradition petered out in the sixteenth century.
In Scotland and Ireland, the physical appearance of the “First Foot” (the first person to enter the house after midnight) mattered. It was said that this entrant could make or break a family’s fortunes for the rest of the year. Some people believed a light haired person would bring good luck, for others, it had to be a dark complexioned man or boy, or someone who was flat footed. Red heads were thought to bring bad luck and grief.
(Sandra Alvarez. “Celebrating the New Year, Medieval Style.” Medievalists.net.)
Superstition claimed Judas Iscariot had red hair. Red hair was also said to be a sign of witchcraft in Christian Europe, and was often enough for a witch finder to pronounce guilt on someone. Back in the 1500s, it was said that witches in France would blaspheme the name of the Virgin Mary by calling her ‘la Rousse’, the redhead.
New Year’s resolutions were also made in the Middle Ages. In western civilizations (around 500-1000 A.D.), Medieval Knights would renew their vow to chivalry by placing their hands on a live or roasted peacock. (Or a pheasant, if a peacock was unavailable.) The annual “Peacock Vow” would take place at the end of the year, as a resolution to maintain their knighthood values.
The tradition of Watch Night may be traced to the early 18th century in Moravian churches, when churchgoers began marking the occasion with a vigil to reflect upon the year past and to contemplate the one to come.
In 1740, the English pastor who founded the Methodist church, John Wesley, started a service he called “watch night.” On New Year’s Eve, Wesley would have congregants stay in the church reading bible verses and singing hymns. They were encouraged to reflect on themselves and vow to avoid sin in the coming year. It was offered as an alternative to wild New Year’s Eve parties and is still practiced in some Protestant churches today.
(Audrey Goldfarb. “New Year’s Resolutions.” Natural Selections. Rockefeller.edu. December 02, 2020.)
Watch Night (Freedom's Eve) was given new significance among African Americans on December 31, 1862, when, according to tradition, slaves in the Confederate states gathered in churches and private homes on the night before U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was expected to go into effect, pending his signing of the document. The soon-to-be-free slaves stayed awake all night and watched the night turn into a new dawn while waiting for news that the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, thus making all the slaves legally free.
(Editors. “Watch Night.” Encyclopaedia Britannica.)
“In Boston, Frederick Douglass reported that 'a line of messengers was established between the telegraph office and the platform at Tremont Temple,' where Douglass and many others gathered on 'watch night.'
“With great expectations, African Americans looked to January 1, 1863, as the day of jubilee. Many of their faithful elders who had ascended such as Reverend Absalom Jones had admonished those oppressed by the Great Houses of America to believe that God had indeed heard their cries and would deliver them from their taskmasters.
“The believers congregated in churches in the North and around 'praying trees' in secret locations in the South on the evening of December 31, 1862, to 'watch' for the coming of the Emancipation Proclamation, evidence that God had heard their cries; thus, the tradition of 'watch night' was born.”
– On The Tradition of Watch Night, African-American Civil War Museum
Naming “Resolutions”
The term “resolution” in this context first appeared in the mid-1700s in an article in Walker’s Hibernian Magazine. The article encouraged people to make their resolutions at New Year’s and gave many suggestions.
It was common enough by the beginning of the 19th century that people would make (and fail to keep) such resolutions that the habit was satirized. In America by 1802, Walker’s Hibernian wrote a series of joke resolutions such as “Statesmen have resolved to have no other object in view than the good of their country…”
A Boston newspaper from 1813 featured the first recorded use of the phrase ‘New Year resolution’. The article states:
“And yet, I believe there are multitudes of people, accustomed to receive injunctions of new year resolutions, who will sin all the month of December, with a serious determination of beginning the new year with new resolutions and new behaviour, and with the full belief that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults.”
(“Exploring the history behind New Year’s resolutions.” The Real World. Trafalger. January 01, 2020.)
Modern New Year’s resolutions are a largely secular practice. However, the tradition has many other religious parallels. For example, during Judaism's New Year, Rosh Hashanah, through the High Holidays and culminating in Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), one is to reflect upon one's wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer forgiveness.
Be It Resolved in
2021
What
will the tradition of making resolutions hold for folks in 2021? 2020
was a long exercise in developing patience, hope, and faith. Perhaps
our prefrontal cortex – our brain's center for willpower – has
expanded sufficiently in the last year to better our human condition
by using these virtues.
Psychologists tell us people with greater willpower are happier, healthier, wealthier, and more able to manage stress and overcome adversity.
So, if we are really serious about keeping a New Year's resolution, we must flex our brain power. We should continue to exercise all the good judgment we have developed. Our patience combined with our learned abilities to deal with difficult things over extended periods is crucial to our success.
Robert Sapolsky, a neurobiologist at Stanford, believes that the main job of our prefrontal cortex is to encourage the brain towards doing the harder thing. Ordering the salad instead of the steak, going to the gym when your friends are at the pub, getting started on that project you’ve been dreaming about even though it’s easier to procrastinate, etc.
(Caterina Lino. “The Psychology of Willpower: Training the Brain for Better Decisions.” Positivepsychology.com. January 09, 2020.)
Stress, self-criticism, and temptations are some of the biggest obstacles to willpower, whereas paying attention is one of our greatest allies. A willpower challenge involves a conflict between two systems: the cognitive system and the impulsive system, so training our brains to notice when we are making a decision – rejecting “autopilot” – is effective, as are exercise, healthy eating, meditation, and relaxing. The essence is to train our brains to pause before we act.
The promise of reward doesn’t always equal satisfaction. Our minds often trick us into believing the object of our desire is what will make us happy. But long-term satisfaction is rooted in our ability to refrain from impulses that stray from our goals and values.
We are in this for the long term. May our New Year's resolutions benefit from our recent experience as we seek a better year. 2021 holds much promise for those willing to tackle obvious obstacles with their strong cognitive minds.
Spiritual leader and activist Mahatma Gandhi described willpower by noting that:
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
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