A New Year brings new goals, fresh starts and positive forward thinking. Whether it’s our diet, exercise routine or tendency to procrastinate, there is always room for improvement in the coming year. Not only adults benefit from New Year resolutions; our students can also learn a lot about self-discipline and the value of making goals. Everyone, children and adults, have heard of the tradition of making a personal list of new purposes, but do you know where this tradition comes from?
To find out where the practice started, we have to travel back in history — more than 4,000 years ago. The resolutions at the start of a new year were first made in ancient Mesopotamia. The Babylonians made promises to their deities for the New Year, often having to do with easily achievable tasks — for instance, vowing to return borrowed farm equipment.1
Rome too had a share in creating the culture of what, today, we call New Year resolutions. It’s said that Julius Caesar started the tradition of making resolutions on January 1st as a way to honor the Roman mythical god Janus, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past year and forward to the new year. Romans mostly made morality-based resolutions, such as seeking forgiveness from their enemies.2
Times have changed since then and now New Year resolutions are bigger goals that involve bettering ourselves and starting off each year with a clean slate and positive outlook. Wanting to make resolutions is a good thing and we should all have at least one in mind as we enter 2015.
Happy New Year from La Paloma Academy!
