New Year's resolutions
Happy New Year! What is your New Year's resolution? Do more physical exercise, start a new hobby, or do more housework?
The custom of starting the New Year with a resolution can be traced back to about 4,000 years ago in Babylon (known as Iraq nowadays).
The Babylonians celebrated the coming of a new year in March, not in January. The celebration included promises to the gods to repay their debts and return borrowed objects. The Babylonians believed that if they kept to their word, their gods would give them rich harvests and good fortune in the year ahead. Scholars consider these promises the earliest New Year's resolutions in human history.
The first mention of the English word " resolutions " during the New Year was made by Scottish writer Anne Halkett in 1671.
On 2nd January, she entitled her diary page " Resolutions " and wrote several pledges taken from the Bible, such as " I will not offend any more " .
It is better late than never. If you have not made your New Year's resolution yet, try to set one now.
新年快樂！你的新年計劃是甚麼？做更多的體育運動、開始新的嗜好或做更多的家務？
在新一年訂下計劃的習俗，可以追溯到大約4000年前的巴比倫（今稱伊拉克）。
巴比倫人在3月而非1月慶祝新一年的來臨。慶典包括向諸神許諾償還債務並且歸還借來的物件。巴比倫人相信，如果他們信守承諾，諸神會在來年賜予他們豐收和好運。學者認為這些承諾是人類歷史中最早的新年計劃。
在新年期間用英文字「resolutions」是首次由蘇格蘭作家安妮．霍爾基特在1671年作出的。當年的1月2 日，她將一頁日記的標題訂為「計劃」，並且寫下多個取自《聖經》的許諾，如「我以後不再作惡」。
遲做總比不做好。如果你還沒有訂立新年計劃，現在就試試訂立一個。
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