The first New Year’s resolutions may date back 4,000 years.

Perhaps because of the universally uplifting feeling of starting anew, you can find similarities between the lively New Year’s celebrations found in many countries today and those of the oldest recorded civilizations. 

• The ancient Egyptians, for example, shared huge meals and partook in music and dancing to commemorate the pending flooding of the Nile with the festival of Wepet Renpet, meaning “opening of the year.” 
• And the Babylonians of Mesopotamia enjoyed their own extended gala some 4,000 years ago with rituals that may have included a prototype of our modern-day New Year’s resolutions...

Well before anyone attempts to enact their ambitious resolutions, they often ring in the new year by singing — or at least humming along to — the cryptic but irresistibly catchy Scottish folk song "Auld Lang Syne."...