What is the history of New Year Resolutions

Every year, many of us make New Year resolutions and, predictably, many of these resolutions are often not kept. While this seems to us as an annual ritual, the history of New Year resolutions is ancient and, just like today, people in the distant past likely struggled with their resolutions. In fact, they created incentives for people to follow through with their resolutions by invoking the gods.

Early History

The oldest recorded New Year resolution dates to about 2000 BC from ancient southern Mesopotamia, in today's southern Iraq, where the New Year, which occurred at about March 20th in their calendar, would be celebrated in the so-called Akitu festival. The festival was about renewal and looking forward to the New Year. People made oaths to their king as part of this ritual; however, there were also more personal resolutions made. If people borrowed goods from their neighbours or others, they were to return those goods as part of their resolution. Debts were also to be repaid in the New Year and people were suppose to make oaths to the gods related to this. Individuals would also likely sacrifice to their gods and would hope by keeping their word to fulfill their obligations then the gods would return favour upon them for a successful year.