The History of New Years Day and New Years Resolutions

Yes, it is time again to face the New Year and with that, the obligatory and oftentimes dreaded News Years Resolutions. Personally, since I tend to be a goal-oriented person, I welcome any opportunity to challenge myself to improve my life in any manner that it requires. Unfortunately, the statistics show that, if a New Years Resolution is made, it s seldom kept.

Now when you add the fact that we as musicians or aspiring musicians are also having to set goals to improve our musical skills, we may have more New Years Resolutions than the average person. One of my resolutions for 2008 is to educate as many people as I can about the importance of becoming an independent Singer, Speaker or Actor. This is accomplished by thoroughly understanding and using your vocal instrument to its potential and, further, owning the recording equipment to record and critique yourself and create your own recording projects.

In my opinion, one of the reasons for the apathy about New Years Resolutions is that, just as new founded spiritual faith is exciting and dynamic when it is first discovered, it often becomes only rote religion in time. Most religion, in my experience, is nothing more than a script of dead, lifeless and dull clichés that have the appearance of truth but are really lifeless platitudes. Just to confirm, I am not referring to a living spiritual personal relationship but only to those who think a spiritual relationship is based only on the observance of pre-determined and mindless actions. That is what religion is. It is like a marriage where people no longer personally communicate but go through the motions because they think it is the right thing to do.

So it is with News The History of New Years Day and New Years Resolutions

Years Resolutions. If we view them only as undesirable but necessary tasks that we are forced to accomplish by other people, then we will most likely fail. But, if they are birthed from a sincere Internal Vision to improve our lives, they will have an excellent chance of succeeding. And if they do, life will become exciting and dynamic.

To approach this subject with a little more context, let's review some history regarding the holiday New Years and those pesky Resolutions.

The beginning of New Years

Amazingly, the celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. As the tradition evolved, around 2000 BC, it began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (the first day of spring). Considering the cycle of Mother Nature, the beginning of spring is the most logical time to start a

New Year. All over the world it is the wonderful and miraculous celebration of nature's rebirth. The Babylonian celebration lasted for eleven days and each day had its own particular mode of celebration. In comparison, our Rose Parade/Rose Bowl /January 1 show has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

Here is how we ended up with our current date of January 1st. The Romans continued to observe the New Year in late March, but various emperors continually tampered with their calendar so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun. In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the New Year.

What did the Church think of the New Year celebration?

While the Romans continued celebrating the New Year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. What is it with these "Party Poopers?" But as Christianity spread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's Day was no different. During the Middle Ages, though, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years and that is why January 1 has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years.

New Year Traditions and Resolutions have a long history too.

Actually, the tradition of making New Year's resolutions dates back to the early Babylonians. (I am really starting to like these guys) Instead of "losing weight," their most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.

The tradition of using a baby to signify the New Year began in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition to celebrate their God of Wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket that represented the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility. Early Egyptians also used a baby as a symbol of rebirth.

As mentioned, although the early Christians denounced the practice as pagan, the popularity of the baby as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to reevaluate its position. The Church finally allowed its members to celebrate the New Year with a baby, which was to symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus.

The Germans brought the use of an image of a baby with a New Years banner as a symbolic representation of the New Year to early America. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.
An early quest for New Year Luck affected how we celebrate today.
Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect their luck throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. This is why it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. We have certainly taken this simple tradition to excess with parties often lasting into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a New Year.

"Auld Lang Syne" became a hit!

The song, "Auld Lang Syne," is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the New Year. At least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700's, it was first published in 1796 after his death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 which inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition. Actually an old Scotch tune, "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days."

This certainly is interesting information!

Meanwhile, back to our ability or inability to commit to and carry out New Years Resolutions, let's take a moment and review some statistics. Research shows that half of the people who make resolutions at New Year have given up on them by the end of June and only 40 to 45% of American adult make one or more resolutions each year. Happy New Year Meme 2020

The following shows how many of these resolutions are maintained as time goes on.

Past the first week: 75%........ Past 2 weeks: 71%........ After one month: 64%
After 6 months: 46%

Here is a list of the most top rated News Years Resolutions.

Lose Weight, Pay Off Debt, Save Money, Get a Better Job, Get Fit, Eat Right
Get a Better Education, Drink Less Alcohol, Quit Smoking Now, Reduce Stress Overall
Reduce Stress at Work, Take a Trip, Volunteer to Help Others

So, as always, it is up to you and I to change our life or not. It is nobody else's responsibility. I have learned in the last year that one of the best ways to accomplish your goals, or in this case New Years Resolutions, is to visualize your success on a daily basis.

For instance, if you want to lose those health-destroying pounds then find a picture of yourself thin or of someone who is the size you want to be. Look at that photo and feel the happiness you would feel as if you were that thin now. Then, work towards that goal with joy and clarity. If you do this and do not give up, you will be successful. Then, use the same strategy for your other goals. This process will make the journey a 'living one' and not a "religious one." The choice is yours and mine.

Finally, here is the best Vision to have.

After you have written down all your goals, visualize yourself on January 1st 2009 in two ways:

1) If you never stopped work, believing and achieved all your goals.

2) If you gave up and never achieved any of them.

Who wouldn't want number one? Nobody!

Because of this, there is incredible hope for all of us. We always talk about the world being a better place. But, what we may fail to see is that it always starts with us. Because, if you and I can achieve our goals and live a life of independent happiness, then, we will infect others and they will change too. The snowball always gets bigger as it rolls down the hill.

That is how our world will change. Think about it and act today!