." The Babylonians were the first civilisation to leave records of new-year festivities, some 4,000 years ago. Their years were linked to agricultural seasons, with each beginning around the spring equinox. A 12-day festival to celebrate the renewal of life, known as Akitu, marked the beginning of the agrarian year. During Akitu people keen to curry favour with the gods would promise to repay their debts and to return borrowed objects.
In a similar vein the ancient Egyptians would make sacrifices to Hapi, the god of the Nile, at the beginning of their year in July, a time when the Nile’s annual flood would usher in a particularly fertile period. In return for sacrifice and worship they might request good fortune, rich harvests and military successes.
The Romans continued the habit, but also changed the date.At the end of the Christmas feasts, some knights were said to have taken an oath known as “The Vow of the Peacock”, in which they placed their hands on a peacock (a bird considered noble) in order to renew their commitment to chivalry.This moral flavour to the pledges persisted. A 17th-century Scotswoman wrote in her diary of taking Biblical verses as starting points for resolutions (“I will not offend anymore”).
By the time the phrase “new-year resolutions” first appeared, in a Boston newspaper in 1813, the pledges were losing their religious gravitas. 👏👏👏
