With the New Year, it seems everyone talks about resolutions. Back in 2007, I used to host “Lunches of Inspiration” in Fargo and during one of my luncheons I spoke about Declarations vs. Resolutions. Now that we are in 2012, I wanted to include the information from that presentation here.
BRIEF HISTORY OF RESOLUTIONS (http://www.arcamax.com)
• Beginning in 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.
•In the Middle Ages, Christians changed New Year’s Day to December 25, the birth of Jesus. Then they changed it to March 25, a holiday called the Annunciation. In the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration of the New Year was returned to January 1.