The history of New Year’s Resolutions

As the end of December approaches, millions of Americans will make pledges to lose weight, save more money, or learn a new language, only for most of these promises to be forgotten in a few months.

So why do we make New Year’s resolutions in the first place? For many in the modern world, the changing of the calendar year might make little difference in our day-to-day lives. But for much of history, humans have lived in agricultural societies where life revolved around the annual harvest.

And the earliest known New Year’s resolutions were made by the ancient Babylonians. During the Akitu Festival at the start of the planting season, the king’s power was reaffirmed and people promised to repay their debts and return borrowed farm equipment.

The Babylonian 12-month calendar was adapted by other ancient cultures, including the Romans, who made vows to a two-faced deity that simultaneously looked back on the old year and forward to the new. The god was known as Janus, the source of our name for the year’s first month.

Today, many cultures around the world engage in some annual ritual of reflecting on the past year and expressing hopes for the new one. But the content and even timing of these traditions can vary widely.

In the United States, the New Year’s resolutions often focus on self-improvement and concrete goals regarding one’s personal or professional life. The Babylonians similarly express buoni, propositi, or good intentions for the upcoming year.

In other places, however, the New Year is a time of making wishes, not promises. Brazilians, for example, take advantage of their climate by going into the ocean and jumping over seven waves at midnight, making a wish with each one.

The Chinese New Year, which falls between late January and late February, comes with a two-week celebration full of feasts, rituals, and specific objects such as red envelopes meant to ensure good fortune, health, and prosperity in the coming year.

And the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah in early autumn is followed by ten days of repentance where people reflect on the previous year and seek forgiveness for any wrongs they’ve done.

But if the New Year’s resolutions are such an ancient and universal practice, why do they seem to fail so often? According to psychologists, the biggest problem is that our goals are often too ambitious, too numerous, or simply too broad.

General goals like eating healthier or reading more are harder to stick with than concrete measurable ones like quitting drinking soda or reading 20 pages a day. Long lists of resolutions can be overwhelming and often end up being forgotten.

And while it can be exciting to set a massive life-changing goal, a lack of progress early on can lead people to feel discouraged and give up.

In fact, New Year’s resolutions don’t even have to fall on the New Year. Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously wrote that rather than sticking to a ritual for the sake of tradition, we can view every morning as a chance for renewal.

And research has shown that resolutions are most successful when they’re motivated by a real need and in line with other life changes. Even if they don’t succeed, resolutions can be an important way for us to take stock of our lives and to remind ourselves that we do have the power to change.