Who started the New Year's resolution?

Credit the Babylonians with starting the tradition of making New Year's resolutions. The Babylonians reportedly believed (according to four-thousand-year-old information) that whatever you do on New Year's day affects what you'll be doing for the rest of the year.

For many cultures, the start of a new year is a time for evaluation and reflection as well as a time for planning a better year ahead. Babylonians celebrated the new year at the beginning of the planting season in March, not January first. The January 1st date was instituted by Julius Caesar. And the month January was named after the god, Janus, a two-faced figure. One face looked to the past, the other to the future.

And while we are dispensing trivia, the idea of a baby symbolizing the new year was begun by the Greeks, who paraded a baby down the streets to symbolize fertility in the year ahead.

So if you are looking for someone to blame for New Year's resolutions you can start with the Babylonians, or like the Babylonians you can wait until March before starting that diet and exercise program!

Resources:

For more trivia and advice about making resolutions, visit the Web site: how to keep your new year's resolution.com.

December 28, 2002