Ancient Babylon may have been an autocracy but once a year its subjects knew how to put their rulers in their place. At the new year, the king was publicly humiliated in a ritual of penitence for his wrongdoings. The royal symbols of power were taken away and he was slapped so hard that he cried. If there were no tears, the omens for the new year were not good.

As 2012 draws to a close some may be tempted to revive this tradition. Confidence in politicians from China to the US has been ground down by years of economic hardship, by scandal and by corruption. But as the new year approaches, so too does the hope that 2013 will bring a fresh start.

It was this aspiration that led the Babylonians to invent the new year’s resolution 4,000 years ago. But other cultures have also developed useful ways of relegating the past to the past that are worth reflecting on as midnight approaches.