So, did you make any New Year’s resolutions this year? So, from where did New Year’s resolutions come? Well, we inherited that tradition from the Romans. January is named after the god Janus. In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, endings and time. Most often he is depicted as having two heads, facing opposite directions; one head looks back at the last year while the other looks forward to the new, simultaneously into the future and the past. You can see how with one head looking to the past and one to the future, he becomes a good symbol for the making of resolutions to change what has happened in the past as one looks at the year to come.
Janus was the god of new beginnings. The Romans themselves said that Janus was associated with an Etruscan deity called Ani, who predated the Romans themselves. In fact, there are various scholars who say that Janus was originally the main deity of the proto-Romans, along with his wife Jana (later called Diana), worshipped as the sun and the moon. It was later that the myth of Janus changes to his being a mortal man given a special gift by the god Saturn.
The name January was given to that month by Numa Pompilius, the legendary successor of Romulus, and the second king of Rome. His reign was 715-673 BC. But, there is one other very interesting thing about Numa, as related by the later historian Plutarch. He states that Numa:
“. . .forbade the Romans to represent the deity in the form either of man or of beast. Nor was there among them formerly any image or statue of the Divine Being; during the first one hundred and seventy years they built temples, indeed, and other sacred domes, but placed in them no figure of any kind; persuaded that it is impious to represent things Divine by what is perishable, and that we can have no conception of God but by the understanding”.
Now, think about that. Normally we associate pagan Rome with multiple statues of the gods. But, at first the record shows that while the Romans were indeed polytheists, they did not build images.
In 46 BC, January officially became the first month of the year. But, this does not answer when New Year’s resolutions began. Father Orthoduck has seen various answers. It seems to be fairly certain that by 140 BC the Romans were making resolutions in Janus’ name. However, the impetus for resolutions would have certainly taken off once January becomes the gate for the New Year with Janus being the god of the gate and of new beginnings. Inevitably, there are those who claim the Babylonians did it first, or the Chinese.
Father Orthoduck did, however, read one good joke on the issue.
As the first couple began their second year in the Garden of Eden, Adam turned to Eve and said, “Honey, this year I’m going to turn over a new leaf.”
May each and every one of you have a blessed New Year!
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