It’s as much a part of New Year’s Eve as Times Square, noisemakers and Auld Lang Syne.
But resolutions go back much further than 20th Century pop culture. In ancient Babylonia, people would make promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would repay their debts and return any items they may have borrowed in the previous year. Similarly, Romans would make promises to their god Janus for whom the month of January is named. Janus had the ability to look back on the year passing with one face, and look forward to the year coming with his other face.
....read more in this week's Confederate.