— Gowri Raj Varma
As a rom-com enthusiast, it is tradition for me to indulge in watching Bridget Jones’s Diary every time the new year comes beckoning. I and the millions that instituted Bridget Jones as a Cultural Icon™ kept cheering her on as she went to outright crazy and absurd lengths to uphold her New Year’s Resolutions of “losing weight, stopping smoking, and finding Mr Right” (This was the early 2000s- low rise jeans were the fad, and kissing the love of your life as the clock struck midnight on a new year was all that mattered, duh).
Bridget Jones isn’t the only one obsessed with New Year’s Resolutions though. I’m sure the minute I open social media around December 31st, I’m going to find all the influencers feed talking about “embracing spiritual growth” and “summoning positive auras for 2023”. Some celebrity is definitely going to peddle the “power of healing crystals”, encouraging some fourteen year-old white girl to change her Instagram bio to “locally-sourced new year’s special crystals!!!! pls support small businesses <333” (all small caps, naturally, because what self-respecting Gen-Z small-business owner would sacrifice aesthetics for grammar?).
My fourteen year-old brother’s resolution for 2023 is to make his Spotify wrapped “cooler”. My mom wants to start working out more. A friend of mine is sure that turning 21 next year means she’s going to eat healthier because “adulting means being responsible” (not sure how most of the world missed that memo). Another friend’s going to achieve the perfect work-life balance in one day, and my cousin is going to start painting because, in her words, she’s got no hobbies. According to Forbes USA, these examples are extremely common too- most New Year’s Resolutions involve improving oneself, including becoming happier, living a healthier lifestyle, working out, and cutting back on drinking. People also make resolutions to work on professional or employment goals and to enhance their interpersonal relationships (we can see that with Bridget Jones’s desperate attempts to sleep with her “delicious” boss).
It’s strange how the Earth’s new revolution around the sun inspires an inner revolution as well.
The Babylonians, who were the first to celebrate new year’s, conducted their festivities in late March, heralding the advent of spring. It was when Julius Caesar took over the Roman Crown in 45 BCE that the date shifted to January 1st. Moreover, you have so many different cultures commemorating the special occasion on very different days. Take India, for example- the Tamil new year is in mid-April, while the Sikkimese new year is all the way in November. Point being, these dates were fixed for very culture specific reasons, and there’s no force behind January 1st that magically fixes your list of “Things I Want To Change About Myself”, as our dear Bridget Jones found out.
But that’s the power of collective imagination- there is something rather wondrous in the entire world coming together, and counting down the minutes to a fresh start. Statistically speaking, most New Year’s Resolutions amount to nothing more than crumpled up pieces of paper in your dustbin (or if you’re modern, an unused part of your Notion page). Only about 9% of y’all keep your promises. Most people give up in the first week; the novelty of the “new look, new me” wears off real quick when we resume our regular lives. But hey, that’s not what these resolutions are about.
We make pledges and draw elaborate plans because, whether we like it or not, humans are fuelled by hope (I can see all you self-proclaimed pessimists roll your eyes in contention). We like to believe that all it takes to change is a sprinkle of magic and a new calendar. And while the rational parts of our mind know that to be blatantly false, there’s a small population of miracle workers who actually do manage to turn their lives around because of an arbitrary date decided by some ancient Roman dude. Ever since I turned eighteen, I’ve wanted to get my driver’s licence. And every year, on January 1st, I take one look at Indian roads and choose to preemptively avoid imminent death/jail time. But that doesn;’t stop me from making really long New Year’s Resolution Lists time after time, and including “Learn to Drive” somewhere in there.
The month of January is named after Janus, a god with two faces- one looking back, and another looking forward. That’s exactly what we do year after year, isn’t it? Tracing the journey you’ve had over the past 365 days, and hoping for an equally wonderful, if not better year to come is a wistful, whimsical exercise that elicits excitement, nervous anticipation, and a resignation toward the inevitability of time passing by- all in equal measure. Nevertheless, whether you’re at a party, watching the Ball drop at Times Square or lounging on your sofa watching Filmfare Awards on TV, there’s a creeping sense of hope with the words “this will be my year” ringing in your ears, tingling through your veins. And you know what? It probably will be your year. After all, if someone as disastrous as Bridget Jones could manifest her dream life through excessive New Year’s journaling, so can you 🙂
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