The traditional history of New Year is all about making decisions to be kinder, more caring, more generous, to eat less, watch what you drink, to quit smoking, to exercise more, to take up a hobby, read more, or to attempt a healthier work-life balance. However, we think the subject of New Year really comes alive if you take an unexpected approach to its history. Yes, promises, dieting and charity all have fascinating histories, but the history of New Year is also all about power, sobriety, paranoia, migration and failure, as we demonstrate here in five curious historical facts.
Power in Tudor England
At the Tudor court, New Year was intimately connected to power. The long-standing custom of courtiers giving gifts to the monarch on 1 January was a ritualised…
