Listening

Have you thought about your New Year’s promises yet? Some people write them down carefully, while others just keep them in mind. The tradition of making resolutions goes back thousands of years. In ancient Rome, people honored Janus — the god with two faces who could see both past and future. Romans believed Janus watched over new beginnings, so they exchanged gifts and forgave others as each year started. New Year’s Day hasn’t always been January 1. Only cultures using a 365-day solar calendar celebrate it then. In 46 B.C., Julius Caesar introduced a new calendar and officially made January 1 the first day of the year, naming the month after Janus. Over time, resolutions have come to mean personal goals — like being healthier, studying harder, or changing bad habits. Some people decide to eat better, exercise more, or stop smoking. Others want to focus more in school or improve their work. But whether or not we keep these resolutions, they remind us to look back on what we’ve done and forward to what we hope to achieve.