The Millennium
What year is it?Since the work of the Venerable Bede, who wrote De Temporarum Ratione (On the reckoning of time) in 725AD, England has used the Anno Domini system of measuring time in years since the birth of Christ. However, Bede did not invent that calculation of time - it was based on the work of Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the little!).
Dionysius was a Scythian, living in the 6th century, who was working for Pope John I on the calculation of when Easter would fall. Because the Christian church had grown up during the domination of the known world by the Romans, it had adopted the Roman calendar. Dionysius commented that in his opinion the church should not be using a calendar based on one created by pagan Romans who had famously persecuted Christians. He thought that it would be a good idea to date the Christian era from the birth of Christ.
Now this is where the problem originates. He decided that the first Year of Our Lord should be year 1. There were two reasons for this. Firstly he was using Roman numerals, which didn't have a symbol for zero. Secondly, the concept of a zero was not part of western mathematical thinking at that time.
When a baby is born, its first year is always year 0. The child does not become 1 until its first birthday. However, with Dionysius' dating, one year had not elapsed until the start of 2AD. Ten years had not elapsed until the start of 11AD. One hundred years had not elapsed until 101AD. One thousand years had not elapsed until 1001AD. And so the second millennia did not end until the start of 2001.
The question has been raised whether the first Christian millennium should be counted from 1AD or from the year preceding it. According to Dionysius, the Incarnation occurred on 25 March of the year preceding 1AD (with the birth of Jesus occurring nine months later on 25 December), so it is reasonable to regard that year, rather than 1AD as the first year of the Christian Era. In that case 1AD is the second year, and 999AD is the 1000th year, of the first Christian millennium, implying that 1999AD is the final year of the second Christian millennium and 2000 AD is the first year of the third.
The other problem that faced Dionysius was deciding which year in the Roman calendar was to be year 1. Most scholars think that he was wrong, probably by about four years.
So, you should have celebrated the end of the second millennium and the start of the third on 31 December 2001 - or should you? Now we know which is the right year, but what is the right date? What date does the new year start on?
What date is it?
For many years we've all been celebrating the new year starting on 1 January. But originally the Christians assumed that year 1 began on the 25 December - the day Christ was born. He was born on day 1 of year 1, they thought. So perhaps we should have celebrated on Christmas Day. However, some early Christians thought that time should be counted from the first moment that Christ was on Earth, ie from the very start of Mary's pregnancy. This makes the start of the year the 25th March. This is the date of Lady Day or the Feast of the Annunciation - the festival celebrating Mary's visitation by the Angel Gabriel.
Many farm rents are traditionally paid on Lady Day, the first day of the new year. It even gets a mention in Pepys Diaries as the start of the year.
But are you sure it's 2002 anyway?
If you're a Muslim, the new year begins on 15 March and it will be 1423.
If you're Jewish, then New Year's day (Rosh Hashanah) is 7 September, and the year will be 5763.
For Hindus, according to Shalivahana Sake it's 1924-1925 (Indian National Calendar begun in year 78AD), and according to King Vikramaditya it's 2058-2059 (Vikram Samvat begun in year 57BC).
If you're Chinese, then the new year starts on 12 February 2002. The year of the snake ends and the year of the water horse begins. But what year will it be? The answer is about 4602. The Chinese Lunar New Year dates from 2600BC.
More information about calendars
More information about the season dates and British Summer Time
More information about Easter
More information about the date of the creation of the Earth