Roman God Janus Started New Year’s Resolution Tradition

Survey research from the American Medical Association (AMA) gives a 46% success rate to New Year’s resolutions during the first half of the year.  That success, however, is always short-lived. The AMA research agrees with other polls that the number of successful resolutions drops drastically during the last months of the year.

A blog posted in this space in December, 2015 explains the origins of the New Year’s tradition. That blog is posted here again for you to read again or see for the first time.    

The custom of making resolutions to improve oneself at the beginning of a new year dates back to the first century B.C. when ancient Romans worshiped the god Janus. That god symbolized beginnings and endings by seeing the past and future at the same time. Pollsters from the University of Scranton, PA, published research in 2014 indicating that 45 to 50 percent of Americans continue the 2,100 year old tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions.

Janus was depicted as a bearded man with two heads, one looking left to the past and the other looking right to the future. The Romans believed Janus would bless them with a prosperous new year if the god saw that they made improvements in their lives from the previous year. They believed this gave them a clean slate to use to improve their lives.

Julius Caesar named the first month of his new 12-month calendar January after Janus in 46 B.C. Caesar created the world’s most accurate calendar. With some small changes, it’s the calendar most cultures use today. Janus was a minor god and the prestige Caesar gave him by using his name for the first month raised the god’s status to a popular level.

Even with the influence and blessings from Janus, most people failed to keep their resolutions during the New Year just as we do today. The statisticians at Scranton University published a study in “The Journal of Clinical Psychology” that showed 75 percent of people kept resolutions after the first week. By the end of the first month of the year, the figure dropped to 64 percent and to 46 percent after the middle of the year.

Scranton’s findings came from interviews with test subjects. It’s human nature in answering face-to-face questions for people to say what they think the pollsters want to hear. Surveyed people want to please the people administering the questions. Not wanting to admit failure, people will say they kept their resolutions to feed their egos. With that in mind, the actual number of people keeping their resolutions for the entire year is about only 15 percent. The typical resolutions of losing weight, exercising and to stop smoking prove the old adage that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The meager number of people keeping New Year’s resolutions is supported by a recent study done by the University of Bristol at Bristol, England. That study surveyed a large group of 3,000 people. The results showed that 88 percent of those questioned failed to keep their resolutions during the year.

Following the inspiration of Janus is a worthwhile practice for everyone to use in trying to improve ourselves. The best thing we can do is use determination and pledge to make good resolutions at the beginning of 2016. If we fail to keep those resolutions, don’t worry. We’ll simply be in the majority.

Come back to this space after the New Year begins for another interesting subject. Go to my website www.joevlatino.com and read a piece of flash fiction called “Cake.” While you’re there, see the information about buying a copy of my book of short stories “The Device” at a greatly reduced price.

                                                       

Tooth Fairy Reassures Children That Losing Teeth Isn’t Scary

Most children lose the first of their 20 baby teeth between four and seven years old. The primary teeth, sometimes called milk teeth, fall out and get replaced with 32 permanent teeth during the following six years. Children often get scared, even traumatized, when the first baby tooth gets loose and eventually falls out or gets pulled.

A unique North American fantasy called the Tooth Fairy can ease the fear many children have about losing a tooth. The myth involves children saving the tooth for the Tooth Fairy to take and exchange for money or a gift.

The dental fairy is a relatively new fable that didn’t show up until as recently as 1927. That’s when Esther Watkins Arnold wrote “The Tooth Fairy,” an essay for children about the spirit and her benevolent habit of giving money in exchange for children’s first teeth.

Losing baby teeth is a clue to children that adolescence and the struggles of puberty are coming. It’s a rite of passage and a signal to children and their parents that young bodies are at the beginning of changes. Getting money, usually for the first time, gives children a feeling of maturity and responsibility.

European and Nordic traditions acknowledge quite different methods of using children’s baby teeth. As far back as the Middle Ages, baby teeth were buried or left for mice and rats to take. It was believed that this prevented witches from getting them. Witches who possessed a tooth could allegedly cast spells and curses on the owner.

People also believed that providing baby teeth to rats and mice would ensure the child would develop adult teeth as strong as the rodents had. Rodents were part of everyday life since the vermin commonly lived inside houses.

Ancient Vikings going into battle often wore necklaces made of their children’s teeth. The necklaces gave them invincibility, they thought. You can read about other tooth fairy traditions by clicking here.

During the 1970s in the United States, a college professor named Rosemary Wells became fascinated by the positive reaction she saw among youngsters who believed in the Tooth Fairy.  Dr. Wells taught at the Northwestern University, School of Dentistry, in Chicago, IL. She gave numerous presentations at dental conventions during her teaching career about the comfort children received from the Tooth Fairy myth.

She conducted several public surveys about the Tooth Fairy. Her research found an overwhelming 95 percent of adults thought the Tooth Fairy myth was a positive force in their families. For the rest of her life, Dr. Wells kept an obsession with all aspects of the myth.  She collected items from all over the world to use in a Tooth Fairy museum located inside her home. Her husband sold the museum items after Wells died in 2000. Northwestern University’s Dental College closed the following year.

VISA Inc. published a survey in 2012 about the amount of money children received from the Tooth Fairy. The corporation showed that children received an average of $3.70 per tooth. That amount was up 23 percent from the previous year. When the tradition first started in the 1920s, children were lucky to get a few cents for one of their baby teeth. Currently children get an average of $5.00 per tooth from the Tooth Fairy.  

Information for this blog post was gathered from The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, and Wikipedia. Thanks for visiting and come back to this space later this month for a different posting. Visit my website for free view of an original piece of flash fiction at www.joevlatino.com.  

Buying the “Twelve Days of Christmas” Gifts a Bargain This Year

If you buy all the gifts listed in the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you’ll get them for only $198.00 more than last year. Total cost for the 12 gifts is $34,130.99, according to PNC Financial Services Co. of Pittsburgh, PA.

The financial group has calculated the price of the gifts listed in the iconic Christmas song over several years. In this year’s news release, PNC says the 2015 cost is the smallest increase for the past six years because of a low inflation rate. Nine of the twelve gifts kept the same costs as last year.  

Two of the daily gift totals vary greatly from the most expensive to the least costly. Seven swans-a-swimming cost more than anything else at $13,125.00; the same price as last year. The least expensive group is the eight maids-a-milking for $58.00. That’s chump change compared to the seven swans. I guess the PNC number crunchers found the eight maids were considered unskilled labor. Those seven swans had to be some kind of precious birds at their price.

PNC Financial, the acknowledged expert source, listed each day’s total and the amounts of price changes:

• One partridge in a pear tree for $241.99, up 3% from last year’s $207.68
• Two turtle doves for $290.00, up 11.5% from $260.00 last year
• Three French hens cost $181.50, no change from 2014
• Four calling birds will set you back $599.96, the same as last year
• Five golden rings are estimated at $750.00, same price last year
• Six Geese-a-laying cost $360.00, same price as last year
• Seven swans-a-swimming cost an outrageous $13,125.00 (are they doing the back stroke?) with no change from 2014
• Eight maids-a-milking cost only $58.00 (they need a stronger union) with no cost change
• Nine ladies dancing are at a pricey $7,552.84, same price last year
• Ten lords-a-leaping cost $5,508.70, and that’s up 3% from last year’s price of $5,348.24
• Eleven pipers piping will charge you $2,635.20, no change
• Twelve drummers drumming bring a price tag of $2,854.80, no difference from 2014.

The Christmas carol began its known lineage in 1780 England as a chant or rhyme without music, according to Wikipedia. An author’s identity was not found in any documents. It went through several changes in the words that were eventually sung. The standard tune associated with it came from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Astin. He’s given credit for introducing the prolongation of the verse “five gold rings” that’s often sung as “five golden rings.”

The repetition of the song makes it recognizable immediately. The carol, translated into hundreds of languages, is sung thousands of times over the radio and as part of television presentations throughout the world during the Christmas season.

Thanks for reading this blog. Come back here later this month to find another interesting subject. You can also see more of my writing at www.joevlatino.com.