The New Year is upon us and I’m sure a lot of people indulged in the time honored tradition of coming up with, then announcing to the world what they resolved to change, improve, quit, etc. in 2023. I might be a little bit late exploring this subject, but there is a method to my madness.

The practice of making promises at the beginning of the new year is not a recent invention, unless one considers four thousand years in the past recent.  The practice seems to have started with the ancient Babylonian empire. They held the first recorded celebrations, although in mid-March, not January, because that is when the crops were planted, the start of the growing season.

They kicked things off with a huge twelve day religious festival they called Akitu. The party started with the crowning of a new king or the reaffirmation of loyalty to the reigning king. This was followed with promises to pay their debts and return anything borrowed. Sounds a lot similar to our current practice, in my opinion.

The Babylonians believed their pagan gods would bestow favors on them and bless the year to their good, but only if they fulfilled their promises through the year. If not, the gods would not favor them and. of course, no one wanted to be in the gods’ bad books.

The Romans, some two thousand years later, had a similar practice, starting with Julius Caesar. in 46 BC. He played around and established January 1 as the first day of the year, starting in 46 B.C. January held special significance for the Romans; the month was named for Janus, a two-faced deity who was depicted as looking backward into the past year and forward into the new year, at the same time. Sacrifices and promises of good conduct for the following year were offered in the hope of convincing him to smile on people’s efforts that year.

Fast forward a few centuries and we have John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, creating a Covenant Renewal Service in 1740, which was held on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. The service included readings from the Scriptures and hymn singing and served as a spiritual alternative to the wild, raucous parties that were common at that time.

Current research suggests that as many as forty-five percent of Americans confess to making resolutions every year. Unfortunately, only eight percent actually achieve their goals, but that doesn’t seem to deter them the next year.

As far as the glimmer of gold in this, it is a purely personal opportunity to brag about my unblemished record of perfection with new year’s resolutions. I make the same one each year and have never, in my 66 years on this earth, failed to achieve what I set out to do.

What is my resolution each year and how do I manage to fulfill it? Quite simply, I resolve each New Year’s Day to not make any resolutions. So far I haven’t missed completing a single resolution!