Resolution for the New Year

Most of us, if not all, are now ready or just about ready to come up with their New Year's Resolution. As we welcome the year 2009 our hope to formulate our resolution to keep for the entire year bothers us, if you may. We somehow find it difficult to finalize our New Year's resolution and it worries us, at least I do.

Thinking of goals to set and to religiously follow for the rest of the year give us a kind of fear of not being able to even fulfill one after the 12th month. In theory, the whole shebang is not at all Herculean in nature. But the same can't be said in real life.

But who started all these trouble of coming up with a New Year's Resolution? Do we really have to do this?

Suprisingly, there is a history behind it all. Whether it make sense or not, I would still enthusiastically make my resolution and call out all the willingness in me to fulfill it. Now, let me share to you what I read:

The History of New Year's Resolutions

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.

With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

The New Year has not always begun on January 1, and it doesn't begin on that date everywhere today. It begins on that date only for cultures that use a 365-day solar calendar. January 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46 B.C., when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had.
The Romans named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances. He was always depicted with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. Thus he could look backward and forward at the same time. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new. The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common New Year's gifts.

There's nothing to loose and much to gain if you can make a resolution for this year and keep it. After all, the resolution is all about you. So no one will gain from it but you. Who knows, you might find yourself a better person at the end of the year.

Find yourself something or somewhere to write your resolution for this year now. I am making mine now. Goodluck!