Next millenium on 2001? Nah!

Because it’s easier to say (and think about) “the '80’s” over “1981 thru 1990”.

Again, people like zeros. They like the roll over. They like the even numbers.

<Cripes, will you read what I wrote? Every single possible ten-year period is a decade.>

Then every single 1000-year period is a millenium, right?

So those who celebrated the new millenium on January 1st, 2000 weren’t wrong. They were just celebrating a different millenium.

David

Well, as long as they didn’t loudly declare that they were celebrating the end of the 2nd millennium CE and the advent of the 3rd, they would certainly be completely correct!

Actually, since most of the “millennium” types just referred to it as “the millennium” without any identifying number or title whatsoever, I guess I could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they knew what they really were saying…


…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!

This is really not that hard. Just as the phrase “the 1900’s” refers to 1900 through 1999, the 1980’s refers to 1980 through 1989.

On the other hand, if you say “the 199th decade”, you’d be referring to 1981 through 1990.

It’s common to call centuries and mellennia by the “n’th” designation, but decades by their starting digits. Probably because the arithmetic is too difficult for the decades. I’m starting to wonder if it is also for the centuries.