ProCon’s New Year’s Quiz
- Question: Which of the following is a common argument in favor of making New Year’s resolutions?
- Answer: This is a common argument for making New Year’s resolutions.
- Question: The earliest known New Year’s resolutions took the form of a “negative confession.” What is a “negative confession”?
- Answer: A “negative confession” is a list of sins one has not committed that can also serve as a pledge to continue avoiding those sins.
- Question: How did the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions take hold in the area that became the United States?
- Answer: The tradition of making pledges for the new year arrived in colonial America with the Puritans, who desired to avoid debauchery and cultivate a more moral life in the coming year.
- Question: Which of the following is a common New Year’s resolution?
- Answer: All of these are common New Year’s resolutions.
- Question: Which of the following is a common argument against making New Year’s resolutions?
- Answer: This is a common argument against making New Year’s resolutions.
- Question: Which of the following is true about New Year’s celebrations?
- Answer: All of these are true about New Year’s celebrations.
- Question: What common word is derived from the Roman god associated with the new year and the making of resolutions?
- Answer: Every January ancient Romans celebrated Janus, their god of new beginnings, who had two faces—one looking backward to the past, the other looking forward to the future. The month was named for the Roman god.
- Question: Where did the earliest known New Year’s resolutions originate?
- Answer: The earliest known New Year’s resolutions originated in Babylon, the capital of the southern Mesopotamian area of Babylonia, first settled about 4000 BCE near the modern city of Baghdad.
