<\/p>\n
By Christian TodayFriday, January 02, 2026HowLettery\/iStock<\/span><\/p>\n The beginning of January is when many people traditionally resolve to start a new, though sometimes challenging, habit and embark on a transformational change in their lives. This is the story of that tradition \u2026<\/p>\n The year<\/strong><\/p>\n 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\u00a0were created on the fourth day of creation, when God said, \u201cLet 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\u201d (Genesis 1:14\u201319).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Different New Years<\/strong><\/p>\n 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\u00a0Old Lady Day, and the legal new year, which starts on Oct. 1. Different cultures and religions start the year at different times.<\/p>\n Jewish New Year<\/strong><\/p>\n Jewish New Year is called\u00a0Rosh Hashanah, which means \u201chead of the year.\u201d 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\u00a0shofar, which is a ram\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Ancient beginnings<\/strong><\/p>\n An\u00a0article in National Geographic on Dec. 27, 2024, explored the history of New Year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Roman New Year<\/strong><\/p>\n The tradition of starting the calendar on Jan. 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 looked 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 \u201cfresh start\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Ecclesiastical New Year<\/strong><\/p>\n Christians mark different ecclesiastical new years. The Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar starts on Sept. 1, and the Ethiopian New Year, called Enkutatash, starts on Sept. 11 or Sept. 12, if it is a leap year.<\/p>\n For Catholics and Protestants, the liturgical new year starts on Advent Sunday, which is the end of November or the start of December.<\/p>\n In Eastern Orthodox communities in parts of Eastern Europe that observe Christmas according to the Julian calendar, the \u201cOld New Year\u201d is marked on Jan. 14 in the Gregorian calendar, which is the equivalent of Jan. 1 on the Julian calendar.<\/p>\n Lady Day as New Year\u2019s Day<\/strong><\/p>\n In mediaeval Europe, dominated by the Catholic Church, the Feast of the\u00a0Annunciation, or\u00a0Lady Day on March 25, was widely adopted as New Year\u2019s Day. After the\u00a0Norman 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 Jan. 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 Jan. 13.<\/p>\n Resolutions<\/strong><\/p>\n As the Gospel spread through the Roman world, Christians inherited this instinct to pause and take stock. Early Christian preaching and catechesis emphasized repentance, examination of life, and obedience to Christ. The turning of the calendar year naturally became a moment for such reflection.<\/p>\n By the 17th century, some Christians were explicitly using the language of \u201cresolutions\u201d for serious spiritual commitments. This was popularised by the New England American theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703\u20131758), who wrote a series of \u201cResolutions.\u201d His resolutions were personal promises such as seeking God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n New Year\u2019s resolutions<\/strong><\/p>\n The actual phrase \u201cNew Year\u2019s resolution\u201d seems to have become common by the early 19th century. By the later 19th century and into the 20th century, newspapers and magazines often published lists of suggested resolutions that were often only semi-serious.<\/p>\n These days, New Year\u2019s 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 \u2014 monthly gym memberships are cancelled, new bikes are left in the shed, and Duolingo streaks fall away.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n Christian resolutions<\/strong><\/p>\n Starting the new year on Jan. 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.<\/p>\n 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 practice, yet humble enough to acknowledge dependence on the Holy Spirit. Instead of merely asking, \u201cWhat do I want to achieve this year?\u201d Christians could instead ask, \u201cWho is God calling me to become this year?\u201d<\/p>\n This article was originally published at Christian Today\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Instead of asking, ‘What do I want to achieve this year?’ Christians could instead ask, ‘Who is God calling me to become this year?’ By Christian TodayFriday, January 02, 2026HowLettery\/iStock The beginning of January is when many people traditionally resolve to start a new, though sometimes challenging, habit and embark on a transformational change in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1234,3261,362,471],"class_list":{"0":"post-15004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-heres","9":"tag-resolutions","10":"tag-started","11":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}