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Well, Eric, I'm old but I'm not that old! However, I do have a couple of
degrees in medieval history, so at the risk of boring others with off-topic
material, let me briefly explain.
The practice of marking time from the birth of Christ was used as early as the
6th century in Italy, although not used until the late 8th century in Gaul and
England.
For many years, by the way, the beginning of the year was a matter of some
argument, with hold-outs for March 25th (Annunciation) as well as various
other dates around Easter as late as 1745 in parts of Italy.
The old Julian calendar got a couple of things wrong, (like the length of the
year), and the Gregorian reform in 1700 fixed most of these problems. Britain,
always reactionary, didn't change the first day of the year until 1751,
finally tiring of being on a different date than the rest of Europe (does this
mean they will eventually take up the metric system, along with that other
stubborn country, the US?).
But one almost universal commonality in the modern era of chronology (except
for astronomers, and who can account for them?) was to have the first year of
the Christian era as year 1 and the first year of each century, and
millennium, begin on the 1st day of January, xx01.
So the people that have posted here and elsewhere, claiming that 'common
usage' dictates otherwise, are both presumptuous and incorrect. Past centuries
have begun on the appropriate days, and have been generally regarded by
contemporaries, (as determined by historiographic examination of written
records of each period), to have done so correctly , and if we are to ignore
that then we will be indulging in a new, rather than time honoured, departure
from what is correct.
It is also, however, undeniable that various millenarian fancies have sprung
up among the rabble in years ending in 0 (class yourselves among them if it
pleases you to do so), and in 1000, there were riots among the common people
(well, not actually too common, as the lowest class for the most part neither
knew nor cared what year it was, but by a slightly higher class) fearing the
end of the world (puts one in mind of how Microsoft regards 2000, a bit,
doesn't it?) I rather liked the post of the chap that compared all the zeros
to the turning over of an odometer - nice turn of phrase.
So by all means get especially intoxicated, or whatever else you are wont to
do to celebrate New Years, when the clock ticks over to 2000, but allow the
rest of us who understand such matters (probably the minority, I grant you) to
postpone our major blow-out for a year, and let's _not_ spend the next two
years arguing about it!!!!
Oh yes, if you absolutely must riot, there will be _NO_ turning of LBCs into
bonfires!
Bill S.
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