On December 31, 1999, people all over the world will party down like never before in celebration of the beginning of a new millennium. It won't matter much to any of them that they are celebrating the wrong year. There's just something about all those 0's in the date that make it special.
Technically, the party will begin a year early, because the 3rd millennium will actually begin on January 1, 2001. The reason 2001 starts a millennium is because there was no year 0. The calendar jumps from the year 1 BC to the year 1 AD. So, if you count the years of the 1st century, you start at 1 and go through 100 -- that is a hundred years, which is one century. By the same reasoning, the 1st millennium would start at year 1 and go through year 1000. Therefore, the second millennium would start at year 1001 and go through the year 2000. The third millennium starts in the year 2001 and goes through the year 3000.
This technicality means little to those who are looking forward to seeing the year roll over from 1999 to 2000. It's like watching the odometer on your car hit that 100,000-mile mark. So, in some respects, it is altogether fitting that we celebrate the year 2000 with more vigor than we would celebrate a typical new year.
We are certainly affected by the year 2000 in some ways -- including the fact that many computer programs and chips that use only the last 2 digits to indicate the year will no longer work properly. It's called the Y2K problem, ("Y" for year and K meaning 1000). Although I don't believe it will wreak as much havoc as some are predicting, I wouldn't want to be in a life-critical situation that is monitored by a computer chip at 11:59:59 PM on December 31, 1999!
If we are looking forward to the 3rd millennium, one wonders how our forebears celebrated the millennial change in the year 1000 AD. Actually, there was little to celebrate in Europe a thousand years ago. It was the middle of the Dark Ages and most people weren't in a party mood. Besides, they didn't use Arabic numerals as we do. So, to them, they were merely observing the year "M." It just wasn't the same.
Some people are worried about the beginning of a new millennium. There are those obligatory tales of doom and apocalypse. But there need not be any undue concern. After all, there is nothing natural about our calendar. The calendar, including the numeration of years, is all man-made. Besides, it will only be a new millennium to those of us who use the Gregorian calendar.
At any rate, 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. (AD stands for the Latin Anno Domini, meaning "The year of our Lord.") Most likely, he was born in the spring of 4 BC. One of the early Catholic bishops goofed 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. 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 2029.
But, the early Catholic 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 soon-to-be partygoers won't be early after all. Maybe they'll be 3 years too late!
