[Mid] Millenium follies

>From: Jonathan Thorn <courtbard@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Mid] Millenium Candies...
>
> We need verification from
>>that dynamic duo, the millenium spokes candies, with the M's on their
>>devise, or is that their candy shell?
>
>
> <jokingly being snooty>
>
> They are not the spokes candies for the millenium as the millenium doesn't
>occur until Jan 1 2001..... and by then they'll have improper markings.
>Course then again some scholars say that the mellenium was to have actually
>occured in 1996 (?) I'm not sure now....

Millenium fever is simply a case of odometer syndrome. The year 2001 in the
Gregorian calendar becomes the new century, as the common wisdom goes,
because "...there was not a year zero." Technically, that's correct.
However, there wasn't even really a year 1. The actual counting of years
using Christ's birth as a starting point didn't begin until a few hundred
years afterwards, and even then it was back-calculated. Evidently the
scholars of the time got it wrong because, as you point out, some scholars
now believe there was a 4 year error.

Further confounding the actual date is the fact that there was a switch
from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar beginning in the late 1600s. In
many countries on the year of the switch (somebody help me out here - I
can't remember the year), October 4 was followed by October 15. There were
riots in some cities, as people thought the days of their lives were being
taken from them. Russia didn't actually switch until the 1800s, I think, at
which point the correction was 14 days. (This correction was to make up for
the fact that the calendar was shifting in relation to the seasons; in
particular the Christian holiday of Easter was moving into winter.)

Anyway, the result is that the actual date of the millenium even using the
Christian calendar is uncertain at best. (This discussion doesn't even
begin to explore using the Jewish or Chinese calendars, in which we're in
year four thousand and something or five thousand and something,
respectively.)

You can be pedantic about it if you wish, but using odometer syndrome as an
excuse for a big party is as good a reason as any.

                                                ...phil
From: Phil Reed <pcr@ic.net>
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Received on Sat Jun 12 17:43:02 1999