Counting The Years

Purists like to point out that, technically speaking, the beginning of the new millennium does not really occur on Jan. 1, 2000, but on Jan. 1, 2001. This is because there is no year zero in the Christian era, on which historical calendars are calculated. The first year of the era is called A.D. 1, and the one immediately preceding is 1 B.C. Therefore, by the time the calendar reaches Jan. 1, 2000, only 1,999 years will have elapsed since A.D.'s starting point. The same phenomenon occurs as each new century is recorded. In popular observance, however, the simultaneous turning of the zeros marks the beginning of each new century, and very few of the world's citizens will wait for Jan. 1, 2001, to mark the millennium's beginning.

In fact, numerous other systems have been devised to keep track of the passage of the years. The oldest in continuous use, China's lunisolar cycle, assigns an animal to each year based on the Chinese zodiac: the Year of the Tiger, Horse and so on. One of the longest counts is Judaism's reckoning of time from the creation of the world, by which the year 2000 will begin during 5760. For the world's Muslims, it will be the year 1420, counted from the Prophet Muhammad's Hegira (migration) to Medina.

All countries will join in using the year 2000 on their civil calendars, despite the number's Christian basis. Paradoxically, although Jesus' actual birth date is unknown, it is almost certain that he was born several years "before Christ." This anomaly occurred because of an error in the calculations of Denis the Little, the 6th century monk who decided that history should be split into B.C. and A.D.