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.