There's one celebration of a calendar milestone that is both timeless and universal: New Year's resolutions.
History records the first New Year's resolutions in Babylon about 4,000 years ago, long before we even thought about losing weight, eliminating credit card debt and helping with household chores more often.
In fact, the first recorded New Year's resolution was a promise to return borrowed farm equipment.
Back then, New Year's Day occurred in the springtime at the start of the planting season---hence the farm equipment.
But since the dawn of time, New Year's celebrations have included the service of alcoholic beverages and, the next day, an offering of various hangover remedies. Ancient Babylonians devised a particularly permanent cure: public drunkenness could get you beheaded.
The Greeks began using a baby as the symbol of the New Year about 2,600 years ago.
The Roman emperor Julius Caesar proclaimed January 1 New Year's Day, and the rest of the world has more or less gone along with that ever since.
When Christianity took root in Europe, the Church condemned New Year's celebrations as a pagan pastime. But Church leaders had a hard time banning the practice altogether, so they did the next best thing, creating the Feast of the Circumcision. Ouch!
Almost every culture celebrates the New Year with food. In America, "lucky" New Year's Day foods include black-eyed peas, corn bread, cabbage, okra, and ham or pork. And while that last item might seem to exclude Jews and followers of Islam, pork was considered a symbol of prosperity by most western European and Asian cultures.
For the Dutch, it's donuts. They claim it's a circle of life thing, but I'm certain it's the frosting.
For my part, I plan to help initiate the American economic recovery in 2011—that's a resolution all of us should join in keeping. That means electing intelligent leaders in Congress, paying closer attention to our local governments, working harder, living more frugally and making wiser choices.
Almost everywhere in the world, New Year's Day celebrations involve expressing affection to loved ones and family members.
Let's hope we all keep that resolution — and keep it all year long.