The history of New Year’s resolutions

It's not uncommon at this time of year to hear people discussing their New Year's resolutions, these are usually promises we make to ourselves that usually involve self-improvement of some kind. But, where and why did the tradition start in the first place?

It is believed that New Year's resolutions started with the ancient Babylonian's around four thousand years ago. When they would celebrate their new year in March, they would make promises to their gods and would reaffirm their loyalty to their king.

Much later, the Romans messed around a bit with the calendar and would do something similar in the newly established new year celebrations in January. Similarly, they would make promises to their deity to show good conduct for the coming year.

The practice would then evolve and be adopted by Christians who saw New Year's Day as an opportunity to reflect on the previous year. Nowadays, well New Year's Resolution are more commonly associated with making promises to yourself, and though statistically most people don't continue their resolutions past a few months, many of us do continue with the historic practice.