Celebrations for New Years date back to Babylonian times 4000 years ago, and is reported to be the oldest of all known holidays. The Babylonian New Year celebration was said to have lasted for eleven days, with each day having its own particular meaning in the celebration. In 153 B.C., the beginning of the new year was established as January 1st, by the Roman Senate. However, this date has changed over time until finally in 1582, it was put back to January 1st with the Gregorian Calendar, and there it has stayed. It is said that in Babylonian times, the most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment. Modern day resolutions are often ones of self-improvement - such as losing weight, stop smoking, exercising more, and saving money. During times of war and hardship, resolutions tend to change to more traditional images and family values, and to things such as - managing stress better; showing more patriotism; and working toward unity.
Quotes about New Years and New Beginnings
New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.
~Hamilton Wright Mabie
Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.
~Henry Ward Beecher
For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850
If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by realizing that you are the author and every day you have the opportunity to write a new page
- Mark Houlahan
It's never too late - in fiction or in life - to revise.
~Nancy Thayer, b.1943, American author
Every day I wake up, I think, what a blessing I'm alive. I don't care if it snows, it rains, it thunderstorms -- a heatwave. I think, I'm here -- this is teriffic.
~Richard Harris, b.1930, Irish actor