The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. Tradition dictates that every 365 days, we should try to kick bad habits and start our life anew.
It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian new year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of Spring). The early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment (haven't tried that one yet). Popular modern resolutions might include the promise to lose weight (tried that) or exercise more (tried that too), become more organized (ditto), or stop some particular annoying habit of speech—“PERHAPS”!
It was also thought that you could affect your luck throughout the coming year by what you did or ate (Hoppin' John) on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was also believed that the first visitor on New Year's day would bring either good luck or bad luck for the rest of the year.
So now, since I've kept you in suspense about my own resolution with all this useless history of the New Year, I resolve again this year--not to make any resolutions.
PS: While the black-eyed peas, onions and ham were tasty, my luck didn't change last year.