When did we welcome the New Millennium?

Written By Michelle Gonsalves, Saturday, 11 January 2014, Source

FOURTEEN years have gone by since people all over the world partied like never before in celebration of the beginning of a new millennium.

At this time, I remember myself at fifteen, standing on my verandah at midnight listening to the loud music from the nightspots in Charity, on the Essequibo Coast (which was audible even in Pomeroon), and envying the older folks who were having the once-in-a-lifetime chance of dancing the new millennium in.

There was just something about all those zeroes in the date that made it special, so most people probably wouldn’t have cared if they knew that they were celebrating the new millennium in error. That’s right! 2001 is the real beginning of the Third Millennium!

Actually, the reason 2001 starts a millennium is because there was no year zero (0). The calendar jumps from the year 1 BC to the year 1 AD because there is no Roman numeral for zero. When you start counting from 1 and end at 1000, the next series of a thousand begins at 1001 and goes through 2000. So the year 2000 marks the end of the second millennium on the Gregorian calendar.

This technicality meant little to those who were awed at seeing the year roll over from 1999 to 2000. It was like watching the odometer on your car hit that 100,000-mile mark. So, in some respects, it is fitting that we celebrated the year 2000 with more vigour than we would celebrate a typical new year.

A millennium is, of itself, simply a series of 1000 years in a row. For example, the period from May 25, 1953 through May 24, 2953 is a millennium. But, since most of the Western World uses the Gregorian calendar to keep track of years, the important question is when to mark the beginning of the third millennium BC.

In calculating the true end of the millennium, we must consider why we start numerating our years from 1 AD. Christ was not actually born in the year 1 AD, or 1 BC (AD stands for the Latin term “Anno Domini”, meaning “The year of our Lord"). Most likely, he was born in the spring or fall of 4 BC or 5 BC. One of the early bishops erred when he calculated the birth date of Christ.

Also, it doesn’t make much sense to start counting from Christ’s birth anyway, from a purely Biblical standpoint. After all, the story of His birth was not important enough to be included in half the Gospels! A more likely choice would be Christ’s Resurrection. So, if He were crucified at age 33, then the REAL millennial year ought to be 2028 or 2029.

But the early Church decided that Christ’s birth was more significant to our calendar, so that’s what we use. Therefore, if Jesus was actually born in 4 BC, the 2nd millennium ended on December 31, 1996 and the true 3rd millennium began in 1997. So maybe those millennial partygoers in 1999 weren’t early after all. Maybe they were three years too late!