Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America in the 21st century.
Did you make a New Year’s Resolution? If so you are following in a tradition almost 4,000 years old. The ancient Babylonians made promises on New Year’s Day in an effort to gain the favor of their gods. Apparently, common resolutions were to pay off debts and return borrowed farm equipment.
More closely connected to our traditions were those of the Romans. Julius Caesar established January 1 as the first day of the year. It was partly to honor the month’s namesake Janus, the god of beginnings, and partly because that god had two faces could look simultaneously into the past and the future.
The Romans celebrated the New Year much as we do with feasting and music. Being noisy and boisterous was a good way to scare off evil spirits. As early as the 15th century, to further prevent evil entering the New Year, Christians rang church bells. That is the origin of the expression “ringing in the new year.” By the 19th century, horns and whistles were added to the bells for good measure.
The Romans also revived the New Year’s resolution. A New Year’s resolution was important to the Romans because they believed the old year was erased and everyone was granted a clean slate on January 1. The resolution was the plan for the New Year, that is, the writing on the slate.
The Romans exchanged gifts on New Year’s Day: gifts included gold coins with images of Janus on them and tree branches from special or sacred trees.
In medieval Europe, Christian leaders replaced January 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance such as December 25 or March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation). In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII reestablished January 1 as New Year’s Day. The practice of making New Year’s resolutions persisted.
In 17th and 18th century America, the Puritans defined the New Year’s resolutions as a promise to break bad habits and adhere to good ones. It was a course of action appealing to, and therefore promoted by the Puritans.
In the 19th century, Elizabeth Duncan wrote her resolutions in her diary:
“January 21st 1864 Today I have determined more fully to live an humble and devoted Christian and so [illegible] that I may make more steady progress in the good way I have determined to pass the following 1st resolutions which are as follows.
Resolved that I will let no day pass without reading two or more chapters in the Bible or Testament.
2nd Resolved that I have stated times and place for secret prayer and if I am hindered in any way so as I am not possible to attend to it just at the stated time I will improve the very first opportunity after.
3rd Resolved that I will be more firm with the children and not let my temper get control of me.”
Later that year, on July 22, Elizabeth added: “4 Resolved that by the grace of God assisting me I will do all in my power to make those around me happy especially our own family.”
Harper’s Weekly ran a contest to determine the very best New Year’s resolution at the new century mark: 1900. Here are the entries judged the “highest and noblest resolutions an American citizen can make for the New Year and new century”:
Aid to the full extent of my power with a liberal spirit with no criticism of those in authority and with no partisan caviling to seek solutions to the new and difficult problems which the end of the nineteenth century has brought.
Remember we are here but for a span so we must do what good we can
Forget others’ faults and remember your own
Never despise one who is poor and not finely dressed – always remember a diamond is found in a lump of earth
The odds of any of us keeping our New Year’s resolutions, no matter how simple or how lofty, were and remain 1 in 20.
