"New Year's resolutions are a key part of how many people observe the holiday, as much of an annual tradition as the Times Square ball drop or a midnight champagne toast. The concept of taking stock and vowing to do better in the new year actually dates back centuries, though there wasn't always a pithy name for it. The word "resolution" entered English from Latin in the late 14th century, originally defined as the STEM-coded "process of reducing things into simpler forms.""
"like English writer Anne Halkett, who wrote a list of Bible-inspired pledges on Jan. 2, 1671, titled "Resolutions." Historians trace the phenomenon even farther back: to 2000 B.C., when Babylonians celebrated the new year with a 12-day springtime festival called Akitu. They marked the arrival of the farming season by crowning a new king, thanking deities for a bountiful harvest and, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac, resolving to return neighbors' borrowed agricultural equipment."
New Year's resolutions function as an annual tradition of self-improvement and are comparable in cultural prominence to the Times Square ball drop and midnight champagne toast. The term resolution originated from Latin in the late 14th century with a literal meaning of "process of reducing things into simpler forms" and later expanded to include figurative senses like resolving conflicts and staying steadfast. By the 19th century the word came to mean an expression of intent for the coming year, with early references appearing in newspapers by 1813. Historical records show pledge-making practices centuries earlier, including 17th-century devotional lists and Babylonian Akitu rituals.
Read at www.npr.org
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