Happy Year 2000

On New Year’s Eve when nationwide shortages of bartenders, champagne, and caviar are expected, much of the world will be celebrating the dawn of a new millennium. Albeit, one year too early.

Why, you say? According to calendar experts, the real millennium begins January 1, 2001.

The Gregorian calendar is the civil calendar currently in use in all Western and Westernized countries. Although the legal code of the United States does not specify an official national calendar, use of the Gregorian calendar originates from an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1751, which specified use of the Gregorian calendar in England and its colonies.

The Gregorian calendar's system of numbering years has continued to this day. This system of numbering years was instituted in the year 525 by the Roman abbot Dionysius Exiguus who compiled a table of dates for Easter. Rather than starting with the year zero, years in this calendar begin with the date January 1, 1 AD (or "Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi", i.e., "in the year of Our Lord Jesus Christ").

A millennium is an interval of 1,000 years. In the Gregorian calendar, since there is no year zero, the first century (and first millennium) of the Gregorian calendar began with the year 1 AD through 100 AD and the second century began with 101 AD to 200 and so on. This means that the year 2000 is the LAST year of this (current) millennium and that the third millennium begins with January 1, 2001 AD through December 31, 2100.

So, the first millennium was AD 1-1000, the second was AD 1001-2000, and the third millennium will be AD 2001-3000.

If all this calendar/millennium mumbo jumbo is too confusing, consider what Jan. 1, 2000 will be for some of the other 40 calendars currently in use throughout the world today. For Muslims following the Hijjri calendar, January 1, 2000 will be 1420 A.H. For other calendars, the New Year will be: Byzantine 7508; Chinese 4698; Indian (Sakra) 1922; and Jewish (A.M.) 5760. For followers of these and other calendars, the millennium doesn’t mean much at all.

But "Y2K" is an issue on the minds of EVERYONE. (Read about the "computer geek" who invented the term Y2K )

Governments worldwide have spent billions of dollars preparing for the year 2000 date change. Y2K experts insist that they are prepared and all should go well when the clock strikes midnight. Despite their assurances, markets have been cleared out as people stock up on food, water, and other supplies, but not before making a quick stop at the ATM to withdraw large sums of cash, just in case. Reports have shown an increase in gun sales, and many fear potential activity by right-wing militia and millenarian groups. And although New York's Time Square is estimated to have a crowd of more than a million to join Dick Clark to bring in the New Year, reports show large numbers choosing to stay home. Y2K bug, millennium crazies, potential chaos...home sounds good to me.

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