Linda, interesting bit of psychology and history, this millenia thing. If
we want to get technical,we probably passed the 2,000th anniversary of
Christ's nativity around 1995 thanks to the mistake made by Dionysius
Exiguus in the sixth-century as he attempted to standardize the liturgical
calendar, especially the worship of Easter, and accepted by the Synod of
Whitby in 664. Unfortunately, his miscalculations ave endured and have
been adopted as a secular, global measurement.The second technical
information is that the millenia really begins in 2001, not 2000.
Moreover, when the year 1000 rolled around the few people who had
calendars were counting with Roman numerals, and for them, 1000 just meant
the Roman numerical year "M." And, the year M was greeted in some places
on Dec. 25, in other the new year was celebrated on March 25, the feast of
Easter. The Iberians did celebrate the New Year on the Roman date Jan. 1,
but they were still counting the years from the date of the Roman conquest
of the Iberian peninsula. Moreover, the zero was unknown in Christian
European world until its contact with the Arab world.
And finally, I always ask of my students, "whose milleniam. Next year
will be 4698 in China, 1421 on the Islamic calendar, 5761 in Israel and
2390 to the Zoroastrians in India. BUT, even those people in New Dehli,
Peking, Tel Aviv and Teheran will also know that it will be 2000 for the
purposes of business, international relations and worrying about the Y2K
computer crisis. A sign that Dennis the Small, as he preferred to be
known as, has become globalized.
So, this coming New Year's Eve, we will be celebrating nothing more than
the 2,000th anniversary of the point at which we first began counting.
That dating may be erroneous and artificial, but it is nevertheless real.
It has a global and unintended impact to our sense of universal humanity.
It binds all of us on the globe together, and that is worth make a fuss
about. Unlike the people of the ancient and medieval world with their
unimaginable limits on communication and transportation--if either really
existed--we can at least agree on what time it is and can look back
together to consider what our trip has been and its meaning over the last
thousand. That's worth having a hup-de-lah.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of History http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698 /~\ /\ /\
912-333-5947 /^\ / \ / /~\ \ /~\__/\
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