1 January is when people traditionally start the new year with a fresh resolution. This is the story …
The year
A literal day is the time it takes for the planet to make a full rotation on its axis as it is in orbit around the sun. A literal year is the time it takes for the earth to make a full rotation around the sun. According to the Bible, the literal day and the literal year were created on the fourth day of creation, when God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:14–19). Different planets have different days and different years. The planet Venus, which is closer to the sun, spins on its axis very slowly but spins around the sun quite quickly, so that its day is longer than its year.
Different New Years
You can start the year at any time. We speak of the academic year when schools and universities restart each September. We speak of the British financial year, which starts on April 6, or Old Lady Day, and the legal new year, which starts on October 1. Different cultures and religions start the year at different times.
Jewish New Year
Jewish New Year is called Rosh Hashanah, which means “head of the year”. It starts in early autumn on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, which usually falls in September. This does not seem to be the original new year, since Tishri is counted as the seventh month. One tradition is that it is the anniversary of the day when God created Adam and Eve. Rosh Hashanah starts with the blowing of the shofar, which is a ram’s horn used as a trumpet (Leviticus 23:24). Jewish families gather for meals with traditions like apples dipped in honey, symbolising the wish for a sweet year, and pomegranates, representing the hope for a year filled with charitable deeds. Rosh Hashanah then starts 10 days of repentance.
Ancient beginnings
An article in National Geographic on December 27, 2024 explored the history of New Year’s resolutions. Long before the birth of Christ, ancient peoples used the turning of the year for promises and pledges. Babylonian records from around 4,000 years ago describe a New Year festival in which people pledged loyalty to their king and promised to repay debts and return borrowed items. In other words, a new year was already seen as a time to put things right and begin again.
Roman New Year
The tradition of starting the calendar on January 1 is Roman. The Romans fixed the start of the year with a month dedicated to Janus, who was a god with two faces. One looked backwards and one forwards. The month dedicated to Janus gave us the name of the first month as January. Romans would make vows of good conduct and offer sacrifices, a kind of moral and spiritual “fresh start” at the threshold of a new year. The Romans called the first day of each month the Calends or Kalends, which is the origin of our word calendar.
Ecclesiastical New Year
Christians mark different ecclesiastical new years. The Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar starts on September 1, and the Ethiopian New Year, called Enkutatash, starts on September 11, or September 12 if it is a leap year. For Catholics and Protestants, the liturgical new year starts on Advent Sunday, which is the end of November or the start of December. In Eastern Orthodox communities in parts of Eastern Europe which observe Christmas according to the Julian calendar, the “Old New Year” is marked on January 14 in the Gregorian calendar, which is the equivalent of January 1 on the Julian calendar.
Lady Day as New Year’s Day
In mediaeval Europe, dominated by the Catholic Church, the Feast of the Annunciation, or Lady Day on March 25, was widely adopted as New Year’s Day. After the Norman Conquest, this was introduced to England. When the calendar was reformed to bring it into line with the astronomical calendar, the new year was returned to January 1. This happened in 1582 in western Europe, in 1600 in Scotland, and not until 1752 in England. The island of Foula in Scotland still marks the new year according to the Julian calendar, which makes it January 13.
Resolutions
As the gospel spread through the Roman world, Christians inherited this instinct to pause and take stock. Early Christian preaching and catechesis emphasised repentance, examination of life, and obedience to Christ. The turning of the calendar year naturally became a moment for such reflection.
By the seventeenth century, some Christians were explicitly using the language of “resolutions” for serious spiritual commitments. This was popularised by the New England American theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), who wrote a series of “Resolutions”. His resolutions were personal promises such as seeking God’s glory and tackling sin, which were intended to shape his life before God. His resolutions included the desire to live earnestly and soberly, not to waste time, and to maintain temperance in drinking and eating.
New Year’s resolutions
The actual phrase “New Year’s resolution” seems to have become common by the early nineteenth century. By the later nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, newspapers and magazines often published lists of suggested resolutions, which were often only semi-serious.
These days, New Year’s resolutions are largely individual. People make resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, go to the gym, spend less, travel more, learn a language, or develop a new hobby. Often resolutions are abandoned within weeks - monthly gym memberships are cancelled, new bikes are left in the shed, and Duolingo streaks fall away.
Yet secular resolutions echo older spiritual themes. The desire for a fresh start, for forgiveness of the past and hope for the future, is quite Christian. For Christians, new beginnings are found in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Christian resolutions
Starting the new year on January 1 may be from a calendar rooted in Roman paganism, but the principle of new beginnings, repenting of bad habits, and starting afresh is quite Christian. Many Christians use the turn of the calendar year to renew commitments to prayer, reading the Bible, hospitality, and service. Resolutions should be concrete enough to practise, yet humble enough to acknowledge dependence on the Holy Spirit. Instead of merely asking, “What do I want to achieve this year?”, Christians could instead ask, “Who is God calling me to become this year?”
