Happy New Year!

No new recipe today; just a quick post to say Happy New Year!2016 is finally coming to an end. It’s been an… interesting year in many ways, to say the least. I, for one, hope that 2017 is better!

A new year seems like a good time to turn over a new leaf, and making New Year’s resolutions is a tradition that people all over the world follow. Did you know that the ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions over 4,000 years ago? They are also thought to have been the first people to celebrate the new year. However their new year began in March with the planting of crops, not in January. The Babylonians marked the oxcasion with a festival named Akitu.

Other ancient civilisations also created increasingly sophisticated calendars, normally aligning the first day of the year to an agricultural or astronomical event. For example in Egypt the near year began with annual flooding of the river Nile.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Are you normally able to keep them? And what do you do to celebrate the start of a new year? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll see you again in 2017 with more history and food!

Happy New Year!