Changes

The use of the term "resolution" in discussing the New Year may first appear in the magazine <i>Walker’s Hibernian Magazine</i>, where it encourages people to pledge and make resolutions for the New Year. It also gave a list of resolutions that could be taken by different people and professions. In 1813, a Boston newspaper used the phrase "New Year resolution." The newspaper encouraged people to live a less sinful life after the indulgences of the holiday period and one should focus on living a good, sinless life in the New Year, the newspaper encouraged. In the Victorian period in Britain, upper class individuals made it a custom to make more secular New Year resolutions. This began may have begun or led to the trend of making resolutions to become slimmer or look better at least in Western traditions. Others made resolutions to have more children or achieve certain status in society. Arguably, this began the trend of more secular increasingly New Year resolutionsin the mid to late 19th century were not just religious but also secular, as people began to make various promises to themselves. In other parts of the world, New Year resolutions were a mix of secular and religious, often wishing luck and fortune in the New Year. In many cultures, eating a special type of food on New Year's day is common, which is intended to bring luck in the New Year and help in achieving one's goals in the New Year. Eating sweet foods, symbolizing success, is common. The Dutch, for instance, eat a dough fritter called <i>olie bollen</i>, which symbolizes success and luck in the New Year. While champagne is common in Western countries to toast tothe New Year, other cultures also have sweet or alcoholic drinks used to wish each other well in the New Year.<ref>For more on how New Year resolutions developed in the 19th century and the association of resolution with New Year, see: Standage, Tom. 2018. <i>Seriously Curious: 109 Facts and Figures to Turn Your World Upside Down</i>. London: Profile Books Ltd. </ref>