Will or won't you - the dilemma of making a new year's resolution
Once again, we find ourselves on the cusp of a New Year, looking back, sometimes with delight, sometimes with regret, on the past 12 months and full of anticipation for the coming year Here at the offices of Munich Found, normally a haven of peace and harmony, heated debates are taking place on the pros and cons of making New Year’s resolutions. On the one hand there are the yeah-sayers—enthusiastic, list-making devotees of this yearly ritual of self-improvement, while the opposition is made up of the office cynics, those who pour scorn upon the idea of personal reinvention—and can often be heard citing that popular old adage about promises being made to be broken. It is a thorny issue, no doubt, but where did this tradition come from and why has it remained so popular?Most cultures around the world celebrate the onset of a new calendar year with rituals that are intended to bring good fortune. The Chinese, for example, like to clean their homes, thereby sweeping out bad luck, whereas their Japanese neighbors hang a rope of straw across house facades as a symbol of happiness and good fortune. Muslims prepare for their New Year festivities on March 21 by planting grains of wheat or barley in a dish, the young shoots symbolizing a new beginning. In Iran a table is prepared with the seven Sins (Sin is the Farsi word for the letter “s”)—these might include sabzeh (grass), which symbolizes good fortune and purity, sib (apple), which stands for health and natural beauty, or serkeh (vinegar), intended to help ward off bitterness in life. Iranians also like to wear something new on the first day of the year—another custom intended to promote good luck. In Germany, an almost forgotten New Year’s Eve tradition, which has seen a revival over the past few years, is Bleigiessen (lead pouring). People tip small quantities of molten lead into cold water and try to predict their fortune in the coming year by examining the bizarre shapes created once the lead has cooled. And in Greece New Year’s Day concides with the festival of Saint Basil, reputed to have been a man of great kindness, so Greek children leave their shoes out on this night in the hope that he will come and fill them with gifts.
What unites these traditions is the belief in the attainment of good fortune through the observance of rituals. And whether we take such rituals seriously or not is probably less important than the satisfaction we derive from performing them. The custom of making New Year’s resolutions, however, does not fit into this category, at least not our interpretation of it—a self-imposed change intended to improve some aspect of our lives. In fact, the tradition of making a New Year’s resolution has modest beginnings and can be traced back about six thousand years to the Babylonians. Theirs was mainly a rural and farming culture—whose calendar year, incidentally, began in springtime with the new planting season—and while we don’t know who actually made the first resolution, we do know that one of the most popular New Year’s promises made by the inhabitants of Babylon was to return borrowed farming equipment. When exactly this simple and eminently sensible practice turned into a personality make–over is unclear: one would guess that its acceptance coincides with the development of our individualistic society and that its enduring popularity is a (touching) symbol of human optimism.
Yet, if we consider how many of our high-minded resolutions remain unfulfilled, generally within days, sometimes within hours of being made, perhaps it is time to return to the more modest and practical pledges made by our ancestors—just think how happy your friends would be to get back their favorite novels, CDs, etc. Regardless of how you wish to begin the New Year, the staff at Munich Found would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy (and realistic) New Year.
