# History of New Year’s Resolutions: Where Did They Begin? > HISTORY OF NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS Podcast version   s I mentioned previously, New Year's Day celebrations began in pre-Christian times, beginning with the Babylonians in March, but later changed to January by the Romans.   Where did we get the… > URL: https://billpetro.com/history-of-new-years-resolutions/ > Last modified: 2026-01-01T18:37:48+00:00 Reading Time: 3 minutesJanus, Rome. Author’s photo ## HISTORY OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS [*Podcast version*](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6vt8sbo6OcgLxrhe3zSAbW?si=d79e7c22e6f94072)   As I mentioned previously, [**New Year’s Day**](https://billpetro.com/history-of-new-years-day/) celebrations began in pre-Christian times, beginning with the Babylonians in March, but later changed to January by the Romans.   *Where did we get the idea of **New Year’s Resolutions,** and why at the beginning of the year?*   Table of Contents Toggle - [Babylonian New Year’s Resolutions](#Babylonian_New_Years_Resolutions) - [Roman New Year’s Resolutions](#Roman_New_Years_Resolutions) - [Christian New Year’s Resolutions](#Christian_New_Years_Resolutions) - [Medieval New Year’s Resolutions](#Medieval_New_Years_Resolutions) - [Puritan New Year’s Resolutions](#Puritan_New_Years_Resolutions) - [Jonathan Edwards’ New Year’s Resolutions](#Jonathan_Edwards_New_Years_Resolutions) - [Related](#Related) ### Babylonian New Year’s Resolutions About four thousand years ago, the Babylonians held a 12-day festival to celebrate their New Year. This Mesopotamian festival of *Akitu* survived the subsequent Neo-Assyrian and Seleucid Empires (both ruled by **Alexander the Great**‘s generals) and into the Roman Empire period. But in their calendar, the New Year followed the **Vernal Equinox**, the beginning of the Spring planting season. Consequently, their resolutions included the assurance that they would return borrowed farm tools, pay any debts, and pray for favorable crops.   ### Roman New Year’s Resolutions January is dedicated to the Roman god who gave it its name, **Janus**, the two-faced deity who looks backward into the old year and forward into the new. His feast day, the *Agonalia,* is on January 9. Janus was also the patron and protector of arches (*Ianus* in Latin), transitions, time, gates, doors, doorways, endings, and beginnings. He was also the patron of bridges. This statue (pictured above) is set on the bridge, *Ponte Fabricio,* which crosses the Tiber River from **Rome** to Tiber Island. It survives to this day from its original construction in 62 BC, during the time of [**Julius Caesar**](https://billpetro.com/history-of-july).   Ponte Fabricio, Rome.Image: [Wikimedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Ponte_Fabricio_Rome_Pierleoni.jpg/640px-Ponte_Fabricio_Rome_Pierleoni.jpg)   Even today, touching the Janus head as you cross the bridge is believed to bring good fortune, which is why it is so well-worn now. (The followers of the goddess **Juno** have a competing claim to the month of January, according to ancient Roman farmers’ almanacs.) Romans made New Year’s Resolutions with a *moral* flavor, mainly to be good to others. However, when the Roman Empire took Christianity as its official state religion in the 4th century, these moral intentions were replaced by prayers and fasting.   ### Christian New Year’s Resolutions Feast of the Circumcision (Depiction in the Menologion of Basil II, c. 980). Image: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Menologion_of_Basil_047.jpg) For example, Christians chose to observe the **Feast of the Circumcision of Christ** on January 1 rather than the revelry indulged in by those who did not share the faith. This replacement had varying degrees of success over the centuries, as Christians hesitated to observe some New Year practices associated with honoring the pagan god Janus.   ### Medieval New Year’s Resolutions The Chivalric Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock, painting by Daniel Maclise, 1835. Image: [Wikimedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/The_Chivalric_Vow_of_the_Ladies_and_the_Peacock.jpg/640px-The_Chivalric_Vow_of_the_Ladies_and_the_Peacock.jpg) During the Medieval Era, knights took a “peacock vow,” placing their hands on a live or roasted bird at the end of the Christmas season annually to reaffirm their commitment to the “code of chivalry” for the next year, appropriate to the order to which they belonged. They would then decorate their helmets with plumes. This practice dates back to the late 8th and early 9th centuries, during the reign of **Charlemagne** and his men-at-arms, the paladins. For centuries, several Christian traditions have held “watch night services” (vigils) late on New Year’s Eve, the seventh day of *Christmastide,* ahead of the January 1 Feast of the Circumcision of Christ. This allows Christians to review the year that has passed, make confession, and then prepare for the year ahead by praying and making resolutions.   ### Puritan New Year’s Resolutions Colonial Puritans. Image: [Wikimedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Our_colonial_history_from_the_discovery_of_America_to_the_close_of_the_revolution_%281915%29_%2814766645562%29.jpg/640px-Our_colonial_history_from_the_discovery_of_America_to_the_close_of_the_revolution_%281915%29_%2814766645562%29.jpg) As I’ve described [elsewhere](https://billpetro.com/history-of-12-days-of-christmas/), even as recently as the 17th century, **Puritans** in *Colonial America*, like the *English* Puritans, avoided the indulgences associated with [New Year’s celebrations](https://billpetro.com/history-of-new-years-eve/) and other holidays. In the 18th century, Puritans avoided even naming *Janus*. Instead, they called January the “First Month.” Instead, the Puritans urged their children to skip the revelry, reflect on the year past, and contemplate the year to come. In this way, they again adopted the old custom of making resolutions. These were enumerated as commitments to employ their talents better, to treat their neighbors with charity, and to avoid habitual sins.   ### Jonathan Edwards’ New Year’s Resolutions Engraving of Jonathan Edwards by R Babson & J Andrews. Image: [Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Jonathan_Edwards_engraving.jpg/440px-Jonathan_Edwards_engraving.jpg) The great American theologian and preacher **Jonathan Edwards, **who was raised in New England Puritan culture, took the writing of resolutions to an art form in the early 18th century. However, he did not write his resolutions on a single day. Instead, during a two-year period when he was about 19 or 20, after graduating from Yale, he compiled some [70 resolutions](http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4xNTo3NDoxLndqZW8=) on various aspects of his life, which he committed to reviewing each week. Here are just three: - Resolved, in narrations, never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity. - Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it. - Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining, and establishing peace, when it can be without over-balancing detriment in other respects.   *How do your resolutions compare?*   Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian [billpetro.com](https://billpetro.com)   *Podcast*: [*Subscribe*](http://g003.enterprise.ipost.com/billpetrofriend/prefs) to have future articles delivered to your email. ### *Related* [](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/facebook?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/x?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/pinterest?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/linkedin?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/mastodon?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/threads?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/bluesky?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/reddit?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/tumblr?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/kindle_it?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/snapchat?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/email?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/print?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-new-years-resolutions%2F&linkname=History%20of%20New%20Year%E2%80%99s%20Resolutions%3A%20Where%20Did%20They%20Begin%3F)[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)