Many people make New Year’s resolutions.
Whether it is promising to eat healthier, exercise more, or be more organized, almost everyone says they want to do better next year.
However, it is rare to follow through.
Usually a few weeks into the new year it is back to old habits, swearing to start next year.
Forty-five percent of Americans usually make New Year’s resolutions, according to a study done by the University of Scranton.
Of these people, 75 percent maintain their resolutions through the first week of the new year, but only 46 percent are able to maintain them for more than six months.
Only 8 percent of these people are actually successful in achieving their New Year’s resolution.
However, people are ten times more likely to meet their goals for New Year’s resolutions if they explicitly make resolutions, according to this study.
This means that writing down or telling others about one’s resolution will vastly increase the likelihood of its long-term success.
The history of New Year’s resolutions is a long and diverse one.
New Year’s resolutions date back to the days of Babylon, around 4,000 years ago, when the Babylonians held a 12-day festival celebrating the new year, which they began on the vernal equinox, according to HISTORY.com.
As a part of this, they made promises to their pagan gods to pay debts and return any objects they had borrowed.
Since then, New Year’s resolutions have evolved and changed throughout history, with the Ancient Romans being the first to celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1st and make promises to the god Janus.
English clergyman John Wesley created the Covenant Renewal Service in 1740 to sing hymns and read from scripture on New Year’s Eve in order to reflect on one’s past mistakes, according to HISTORY.com.
Today, New Year’s resolutions are much more secular, and people mostly make promises to themselves, with the most popular being self improvement or education related and the second most popular being weight related.
In fact, in 2015, 47 percent of people made self improvement or education related resolutions and 38 percent of people made weight related resolutions, according to the University of Scranton.
In addition to resolutions, there are many other modern practices done around New Year’s Day.
Many people attend parties, eat certain foods, and watch fireworks displays, according to HISTORY.com.
Another such example is many English-speaking countries singing Auld Lang Syne, a song bidding farewell to the old year.
In the United States, the most popular tradition is watching the ball drop.
This tradition began in 1907 and takes place in Times Square in New York City.
The ball now weighs in at nearly 12,000 pounds and has a twelve foot diameter, according to HISTORY.com.
Whether it is promising the gods to pay back debts, singing hymns and reading from scripture, making a personal goal for the new year, singing songs, or watching a giant ball drop down a pole, everyone looks forward to what a new year can bring.
Note: this article was originally published in Franklin Regional High School's newspaper The Panther.
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