It is the first full week of 2025. Many of us are setting goals and resolutions for the coming year, in hope of making positive changes to our lives in the coming months. I have written more than a few columns on how to make resolutions and goals that stick and a couple on new year’s observances in Big Sandy history. However, until this week I never asked where the practice came from in the first place. It has always seemed like something we just do because it’s what everyone has always done. Where did the modern practice come from?
The modern, Western New Year’s resolution came about sometime in the early 19th century potentially as early as the late 17th century. The starting point depends largely on what you consider to be a New Year’s resolution. The earliest recorded example of what could be seen as a resolution comes from 1671, when Anne Halkett (a writer and member of the Scottish upper social classes) recorded in her diary several vows under the title “Resolutions.” She made this list on January 2nd, and it consisted largely of goals that could easily have been drawn from Bible verses. “I will not offend any more” and similar pledges fill her resolution list. This isolated incident doesn’t really represent a custom or trend for making New Year’s Resolutions. That practice doesn’t become commonplace until the 19th century.
In 1802, Walker’s Hiberian Magazine made fun of the practice of making and breaking promises to themselves beginning with the line: “the following personages have begun the year with a strong of resolutions, which they all solemnly pledged to keep…” What follows is an obviously made up list of people and resolutions, like politicians resolving to concern themselves with nothing other than the good of the country. There are other examples from around that time that followed, including one Boston Paper that ran an 1813 article on January 1st remarking on the habit of living in excess throughout the month of December only to swear to do better starting in the New Year. The article speaks of how resolutions had existed for 200 years and how since the beginning of the practice, people had been conjuring excuses to break them.
In terms of everything that could conceivably be considered to be a New Year’s resolution, many historians argue that the earliest examples can be attributed to the ancient Babylonians, circa 4000 BC. Like most ancient civilizations, they followed the movements of the stars carefully, even connecting many of their religious practices to the night sky’s movements. Their new year began with the first new moon after the spring equinox (around late March). During the 11 day religious festival, they made promises to their gods to pay debts, return things they had borrowed, and other things in order to gain the favor of the gods in the coming year.
Ancient Romans originally started their calendar year in March. That is, until they gifted us the Julian calendar in 46 BC, which later was altered into the Gregorian calendar, which we use today setting the start of the New Year in January. The Romans named the month of January after the godJanus. Janus was the god of beginnings, passages, time, doorways, duality, and endings. He is always depicted as having 2 faces, one looking to the future and the other looking to the past. They viewed the month as a time of reflection on the past year and setting goals for the new year to honor Janus.
The Early church was very conscious of not participating in any sort of pagan holidays or allowing itself to even appear to accept pagan practices. As a result, early Christians did not participate in these practices and generally shied away from the celebration of New Year festivals because of their associations with Roman paganism. The early councils went as far as to prescribe fasts and specials masses of repentance and making amends for the beginning of the year in contrast to the pagan holiday.
In the 6th century, the Council of Tours added chanting of litanies and celebration of the Lord’s Supper on January 1st. Over time, the church began to see the 1st as a feast day and many Protestant denominations added “Night Watch” services for New Years Eve. In Medieval Europe, there are indications that the church adopted the month as a time of self-reflection, seeking redemption, and repentance. In the 17th century, Scottish p
Protestants (Presbyterians) named their season of repentance and vow making “Hogmanay.” Incidentally, this leads us back to the first vow to live better under the title of a “Resolution” made by Anne Halkett.
