If you were one of the billions who celebrated the end of the 20th century last year, I have both bad and good news for you. The bad news is - the 21st century according to our current popular calendar actually begins in about 2 weeks from now, on 1 January 2001. The good news is - you can party all over again.
The reason January 2000 did not herald our entry to the 21st century, (discounting a couple of weeks lost during calendar conversion in the 18th century, and other counting errors), was that the first year BC was 1, not 0. There was no year 0. The 100th year in a century (such as 2000) is the last one, not the first.
So have a great time this New Year’s Eve, because it’s the real millennium this time around!
Considering where you got your username, I thought I’d like to point out Your Creator’s view on the subject.
Pedants, by Douglas Adams
This doesn’t mean you are wrong, just that you missed out on all the fun parties. Don’t tell me you were dancing with a hottie on New Year’s Eve 1999 and had to burst her bubble before you Burst Her Bubble, because then I’d have to laugh at you.
Leaving aside other pedantic arguments such as nobody calling the year 1 the year 1 until, say, the year 150, etc, let’s just say that partying twice is the most advantageous philosophy.
Can’t argue with that one. With this thread I guess I’m 1) reacting to two recent verbal assaults from “end of the world” types who seem to think that Big Even Numbers are significant in some way, and 2) looking for a good party that Zaphod hasn’t already crashed.
Given that we don’t know the precise anniversary of the Event the years are counted from, calling 2001 “the beginning of the new millennium” is actually no more or less accurate than giving the same distinction to 2000, or any year of your choice between 1993 and 2001, or 1996 and 2001, depending on which scholarly source one subscribes to.