The real turn-of-the-century/millenium is less than 2 months away, but I haven’t heard any mention of it. After all the hoopla last year, you’d think there would be something big this year too. But it seems like nobody cares. Why?
Because it’s old news.
Because we already had the celebration.
Because every year is the end of a millenium; we just picked what seemed like a convenient year.
Because this argument got old sometime around January 1999.
Any of this ring a bell?
You’re not one of those that skipped some of the greatest parties ever thrown “Just to prove a point!”, are you?
Panach, most people just celebrated 2000 because it was a nice, round number.
had whale of a time last year, didn’t miss a thing (well, they’re are a few things i’m not clear on), but what if we could get the hoopla going again this year! then the company i work for will have to pay out as they did last year (a lot) for those that work on the night. as i celebrated last year, this would mean that i wouldn’t care about missing out this year AND get much folding stuff. get hoopla’ing.
I agree with you, panache, but, as Mulder said, “Nobody likes a math geek, Scully.” The public perception is that people who made a big deal about the 3rd millenium beginning in 2001 are a bunch of stuck-up killjoys, so anyone making a big deal about it will just revive the that sentiment–even if they are currently advocating a big celebration! Not to mention that pedantic people (like you and me) aren’t the type who throw huge parties and run promotions at car dealerships and furniture stores. Thus the lack of publicity. As far as millenia go, this New Years will be a bummer. Perhaps by the year 3001, people will be more enlightened. 
Um… because nobody cares.
I don’t think it was about the actual scientific definition of a millennium, but more about going from years starting with a 1 to years starting with a 2. Just like 1990 was a bigger celebration then 1987 was (ok, I’m guessing, there’s no factual evidence to support this). Nice round even numbers.
Honestly, I think that pointing out the fact that “there was no year 0 so the millennium isn’t until 2001” is a lot like correcting people’s grammar in casual conversation.
The pedants who insist that that the third millennium hasn’t started yet and scoff at all the parties held last December must get a real jolt out of watching their odometers roll from 100,000 to 100,001. Woo hoo!
There’s not so much hoopla because:
a) the Y2K bug was about the 99 to 00 year presentation, not some magical “end of the century”. A similar bug was seen between 1989 and 1990 by systems that used just the last digit of the year to begin record numbers. It took just about as much effort to fix Y2K as it did Y1990 bugs, but Y2K just got more press.
b) The media doesn’t want to admit that they screwed up by saying the 21st Century/3rd Millennium AD had begun.
I just can’t wait till Jan 1…then I can finally say “we’re in the new millennium” without bothering to explain whether I mean the popular millennium (all years starting with 0xxx, 1xxx, 2xxx) or the passing of the first 2000 years AD. It’ll all be done with soon…thank God!
Jman
WOOHOO!!! My 101st post!
Since there was no “post 0” this is the real centennium of my posting career!
Not the same thing. An odometer starts with “0,” but a calendar starts with “1.”