New Year’s resolutions may already be old news for Laconians

LACONIA — Are New Year’s resolutions a thing of the past? They might be, according to this reporter's information gathering about the holiday habit.

The New Year’s resolution is an ancient tradition, with some accounts tracing it back to the year 2,000 BCE, when the Babylonians celebrated the New Year with a 12-day-long festival called Akitu, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. 

The festival designated the beginning of their farming season to plant crops, crown their king, and promise to pay their debts. A common resolution of the period was to return borrowed farm equipment to its rightful owners. 

That tradition was passed on to the Romans, though the date of the New Year shifted to January with the Julian calendar in 46 BCE. Resolutions themselves continued into the Middle Ages, when knights renewed their vow to chivalry by placing their hand on a peacock at the end of each year. 

In modern western society, the act of making and breaking New Year’s resolutions became ubiquitous to the point of constituting a joke. The Almanac cites an 1813 newspaper article as the first recorded use of the term, according to Merriam-Webster:

“And yet, I believe there are multitudes of people, accustomed to receive injunctions of new year resolutions, who will sin all the month of December, with a serious determination of beginning the new year with new resolutions and new behavior, and with the full belief that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults.”

Today, fitness enthusiasts loathe the hordes of newcomers to the gym post-Dec. 31, and others commonly lampoon the idea of breaking their resolutions nearly as quickly as they’re formed. In the city, on Wednesday afternoon, several residents felt they could do without a New Year’s resolution altogether.

“I haven’t really thought to make one this year,” Brendan Berube, of Laconia, said, while browsing the crowded aisles at the Laconia Antique Center downtown, noting most he’s made tended to wane with time. “I always try to treat the beginning of every year as a fresh slate, a fresh start.

“For me, the key for having a good year, a good life in general, is striking the right balance,” Berube said.  

People need outlets for their creative energy, and a balance between work and personal matters, he said. At the moment, Berube is looking forward to a specific creative outlet: he’s stage managing a production of a musical by the Village Players in Wolfeboro called "The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree," set to take the stage in March.

Laconia’s own Judy Nemeth concurred. She was spending her time on New Year’s Eve afternoon in the Laconia Public Library, her arms full of books. 

“I don’t really have any, I almost think it’s a set-up,” Nemeth said. “I gave up on that a long time ago, I just work on trying to be a better person."

For Nemeth, a successful year is easy to describe: “When my family is all well, I feel like it’s a privilege.” 

She’s got eight children and has lived in Laconia for seven years. Before then, her family lived on a farm in Connecticut. 

“I love it here,” she said. “I love the people and the town.”

She’s a big reader, preferring books on relationships and cooking. She spent a lot of time cooking for her children, and now is learning how to cook small.

“I'm a big reader,” she said. 

For Alex Indeck, of Laconia, a “pre-tired” professional engineer, rather than setting a New Year’s resolution, he reflects on the big things.

“I just try to stay disciplined,” he said. “Fitness, eating well, work ethic.”

Not getting wrapped up in the news of the day can go a long way, he said. 

“Try to be a good human being, do the right thing,” he said, while waiting for his order at Wayfarer Coffee Roasters.

When asked what advice he’d give others ahead of another spin around the sun: “Demonstrate strong emotional intelligence,” he said. That means keeping your emotions in check, understanding that there’s lots of inflammatory rhetoric and information floating around all the time.

“Think before you act.”