Happy New Year’s Eve! As we start 2025, a lot of us will be making New Year’s resolutions. The ancient Babylonians were the first to make New Year’s resolutions around 4,000 years ago. They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations of the new year. Their festivities weren’t in January, however, but in March, when the crops were planted. They held a big 12-day festival, where they’d crown a new king and make promises to the gods to pay off their debts and return any objects they had borrowed over the year.
The ancient Romans continued the Babylonian new year along with their tradition of making resolutions. The timing eventually shifted in 46 BC, when the Julian calendar declared January 1 as the start of the year. January was named for the Roman god Janus, the god of new beginnings. Janus was a two-faced god, and the Romans believed that he symbolically looked backward to the previous year and forward into the future. They offered sacrifices to Janus and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.
New Year’s resolutions were also made in the Middle Ages. At the end of the Christmas season each year, medieval knights would re-affirm their commitment to chivalry by placing their hands on a peacock, at what was called the annual “Peacock Vow”.
Today, only 3 in 10 Americans make New Year’s resolutions. According to a recent survey, the top resolutions for 2025 are to save money; eat healthier; lose weight; exercise more; spend more time with family and friends; quit smoking; and reduce spending on living expenses. Just 9% of Americans actually keep their resolutions throughout the year. The second Friday in January is known as “Quitters Day”, when people are most likely to give up on their resolutions. Learn more here.