January the 1st....have you set any New Year Resolutions?
Did you know that this tradition started over 4000 years ago with the Ancient Babylonians? Their New Year didn't start in January but in Mid-March when the crops were planted nad they celebrated with a 12 day festival called Akitu.....a new King was crowned and they made promises ti their Gods that they would pay their debts and return borrowed items to their owners. By doing this, the Gods would reward them in the coming year.
Moving forward to 46BC, the Romans changed New Years Day to January the 1st after Julius Caesar added a few more months to the calendar! January was named after a two-faced God called Janus. Symbolically, the Romans believed that Janus could look back to the past year and towards the new year to come and so made promises of good conduct to him.
These days, we don't tend to make these promises in a religious way but more to ourselves although our success rate may be significantly different!
My New Years Resolutions this year are more like reminders.....focus on the moment.....make time for the small things....always look forward
What about you? Do you make New Years Resolutions?