New Year’s goals motivate students
GCSU, along with America as a whole, seems to agree that it is time to rid ourselves of that extra weight. The Colonnade conducted an informal survey of GCSU students to see what their New Year’s resolution was. The survey concluded that getting fit was the number one resolution among GCSU students and losing weight was a close second. Our survey almost matched the popular resolutions found by the U.S. government, which found “losing weight” to be number one.
The Depot’s increased volume of students since winter break has also reflected our survey’s finding.
“There’s been a big increase [of students],” Student assistant at the Depot Lindsay Timms said. “It’s been really busy.”
Student opinion differs on how effective resolutions work in people’s lives.
“I’d rather make changes for myself than just for a New Year’s resolution,” Junior Beth Shepherd said. “But resolutions can hold people accountable to make changes.”
“New Year’s resolutions are a way to trick yourself to do something productive but gives you an excuse to slack off until the New Year starts,” Freshman Ross Sheppard said.
New Year’s resolutions are nothing new. According to a New Year’s Resolution Fact site, New Year’s resolutions date back to 153 B.C. when Janus, a mythical king of Rome, who had two faces, was worshipped. His faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Janus symbolized their resolutions and many Romans sought forgiveness from their adversaries and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of the New Year.
Some believe that New Year’s resolutions date back even further than the Romans. The Babylonians started the tradition of resolutions around 2000 B.C. The Babylonians’ number one resolution was surprisingly not losing weight or getting fit, but to return borrowed farm equipment.
New Year’s day hasn’t always been on Jan. 1 either. The Babylonians celebrated the New Year after the Vernal Equinox, Mar. 23 on our calendar. Their celebration didn’t end after just one night; it lasted 11 days. The Romans continued the celebration of the New Year on Mar. 25. However, emperors over time tampered with the calendar and eventually it became out of synchronization with the sun. To solve this issue, the Roman senate, in 153 B.C., declared Jan. 1 the beginning of the New Year.
Unfortunately, this tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 B.C., introduced what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It kept Jan. 1 as the New Year, but in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year continue for 445 days.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Jan 23 2009. Filed under Features.
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