A recent poll conducted by General Nutrition Centers, Quicken, showed that more than 50% of Americans vow to appreciate their loved ones and to spend more time with family and friends in 2010 as their Number #1 New Years Resolution of choice.
Other popular resolutions were losing weight, getting out of debt, stop smoking cancer sticks and cease drinking. Do you set New Year Resoutions every year? How many of us really keep our resoultions throughout the year?
Recent research proves what most of us already know: that the vast majority of us will not keep those resolutions that we so desperately want to realize. While 52% of all of the participants in a resolution study believed that they would accomplish their goals, only 12% actually achieved them. Interestingly, men achieved their goal 22% more often when they set small, measurable goals (lose a pound a week, rather than a vague “lose weight”). Women succeeded 10% more often when they made their goals public and enlisted help from friends.
The beginning of a New Year makes us reflect down south, back to what we’ve accomplished and not accomplished. It also encourages us to face north; to the future and things we would hope for our loved ones as well as close friends and ourselves.
Its no wonder that the tradition of New Years Resoutions has its taproots in Roman mythology Janus (or Ianus; meaning “archway”) a mythical king of early Rome who was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January, which begins the new year.
He is most often depicted as having two faces or heads, facing in opposite directions. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new.
With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their foes and would also exchange gifts before the beginning of each year.
The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year’s Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common New Year’s gifts.
In the Middle Ages, Christians changed New Year’s Day to December 25, the birth of Jesus Christ. Then they changed it to March 25, a holiday called the Annunciation. In the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration of the New Year was returned to January 1.
The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March 23, although they themselves had no written calendar.
Actually late March is a logical choice for the beginning of a new year. It’s time of year that spring begins and new crops are planted. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical or agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.
I don’t know about you, but I have some of the top resolutions already in the bag. I don’t indulge in smoking, chew skoal or drink alcohol, though I suppose I could still lose a couple of pounds here and maybe even there. However, I am guilty year around with not offering enough sacred tree branches, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus to both friends and foes alike. I’m going to cease looking back, become more charitable, and beat the 78% odds already bet against me and bag that one too in 2010.
How about you?
Steve Sayer
ALNews Columnist
