The "You And You're Resolutions!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to tidy up my bedroom/study in my new home which is located in Woodcrest Villas.  One place that needs the most work is my digital desktop that holds many of my bills and records as well as my stories for my blog.  One of the stories I discovered that I had begun writing, but not finished, was a story about the custom of making New Year's resolutions.  So...I finished it and you are about to read it!  The custom has been around for thousands of years, but hasn't always looked the way it does today.  Seems that the ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year's resolutions, some 4,000 years ago.  They were also the first to hold recorded celebrations in honor of the new year.  It was slightly different than today since their new year didn't begin until mid-March, when the crops were planted.  They had a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu when the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king.  It was at this time that they also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed.  These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year's resolutions.  If the Babylonians kept to their work, their pagan gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year.  If not, they would fall out of the gods' favor---a place where no one wanted to be.   A similar practice occurred in Ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C.  Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches.  January had special significance for the Romans.  Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the diety and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.  For early Christians, the first day of the new year became the traditional occasion for thinking about one's past mistakes and resolving to do and be better in the future.  In 1740, the English clergyman John Wesley, founder of Methodism, created the Covenant Renewal Service, most commonly held on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.  Also known as watch night services, they included readings from Scriptures and hymn singing, and served as a spiritual alternative to the raucous celebrations normally within evangelical Protestant churches, watch night services held on New Year's Eve are often spent praying and making resolutions for the coming year.  Despite the traditions's religious roots, New Year's resolutions today are a mostly secular practice.  Instead of making promises to the gods, most people make resolutions only to themselves, and focus purely on self-improvement.  According to recent research, while as many as 45% of Americans say they usually make New Year's resolutions, only 8% are successful in achieving their goals.  But that dismal record probably won't stop people from making resolutions anytime soon.  After all, we've had about 4,000 years to practice.   Are you one of the 8% or one of the 92%?  Now...don't tell a lie and reduce the percentage to 7%.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.