The great millennium misunderstanding

Yes, it does begin in 2001, but only die-hard purists really care

By Bruce Kennedy
CNN Interactive

(CNN) -- Judy Crichton, journalist, executive producer of the PBS series "The American Experience" and author of "America 1900: The Turning Point," recently expressed her amusement that how, at the end of the 20th century, people are reliving a controversy that took place 100 years ago.

"People at the end of 1899 were having an enormous argument over whether the century would begin on January 1, 1900, or on January 1, 1901," she said during a CNN Interactive chat. "It was called 'the century question.' There were sharp debates. Most of the world, including the U.S. and England, agreed that it was January 1, 1901. But people ended up celebrating both new years, as I suspect they will this time around."

Celebrations • The celebrations guide • Your Millennium Pictures • Panorama: New Year's in New York • 2000 chat calendar • Gallery: Enter another world Stories • Apostles of the Apocalypse: Are we ready for the end? • The great millennium misunderstanding Y2K • Preparation pays off • Your Y2K forum The Future • A virtual peek into what's to come The Past • A thousand years of history

The issue of when exactly the new millennium starts is generating a surprising amount of heat -- and not just among media-types who might have a vested interest in stoking such a topic.

In January 1999, Arthur C. Clarke apparently felt it his duty to issue a statement. The famed author of "2001: A Space Odyssey" took issue with people who called the year 2000 the start of the 3rd millennium.

"Because the Western calendar starts with year 1, and not year 0, the 21st century and the 3rd millennium do not begin until January 1, 2001," Clarke said.

"Though some people have great difficulty in grasping this, there's a very simple analogy which should appeal to everyone. If the scale on your grocer's weighing machine began at 1 instead of 0, would you be happy when he claimed he'd sold you 10 kilograms of tea?"

Celebrity monk

The confusion has made something of a celebrity out of Dionysius Exiguus, or Denis the Little. Denis, a monk of Scythian origin, was residing in Rome in 525 when Pope St. John I assigned him to devise a calendar that would correctly calculate the date of Easter each year.

Denis started his new calendar with the year immediately following what he calculated to be Christ's birthday (it later turned out he was off by perhaps four years). So the first day of the first year was January 1, A.D. 1 (anno Domini means "of the year of the Lord").

It is often asked why Denis did not start with 0. He would not have thought in such terms. The concept of zero would not be introduced to Europe for another 250 years.

That fact also influenced another monk about 200 years later, the Anglo-Saxon Bede the Venerable (later a saint). Bede devised the B.C., or Before Christ, time system, but he had not heard of zero either. That is why there is no year 0 between A.D. 1 and 1 B.C.

Tempest in a time-clock

A lot of folks have refused to let bygones be bygones when it comes to year 2000 celebrations, venting their disgust in opinion columns and dozens of Web sites at what they see as premature hoopla.

"I mean, it certainly is true that the beginning of the 20th century was not formally celebrated until January 1, 1901," says Stephen O'Leary, associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

"If you look at the last centurial turn, everybody knew that the century began with the '01 year. And you can say until you're blue in the face that there was no year 0, and therefore the series begins with one, and does not complete until the hundredth or the thousandth year has run out."

But O'Leary, a co-founder of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, says some folks are taking this all much too seriously.

"I frankly think that people who are self-appointed experts in time-keeping and chronology and calendars should shut the hell up and let people have their party," he says.

Celebrating both years

That has been the point of view of scientists and officials at places such as the U.S. Naval Observatory and the Greenwich Royal Observatory. They may be adamant the 3rd millennium begins on January 1, 2001, but that does not mean they are raining on anyone's fun.

Indeed, Greenwich, England, site of the Royal Observatory, is cashing in on the hoopla with a yearlong event that celebrates the last year of the 20th century and then the millennium. The centerpiece is a U.S.$1.25 billion Millennium Dome that opens December 31, 1999.

Chicago is making the most of the controversy, too. Its Millennium Celebration began in January 1999 and runs through December 2001.

"We ... knew there was some disagreement about when the new millennium actually started," says Jamey Lundblad, the event's communications coordinator. "So we're celebrating it in a huge way this New Year's Eve, and we're going to be celebrating next New Year's Eve as well, and all the way through the year 2001."

Lundblad says the city's celebrations have gotten at least one celebrity endorsement. "Our commissioner, Lois Weisberg, had a conversation with ... Arthur C. Clarke ... and he said Chicago was the [one] city that got the date right."

Professor O'Leary of USC notes that even some Millennialists, the ones who expect either disaster or bliss starting on January 1, 2000, are starting to hedge their bets. "Predictions are already being made for Jesus to come back in 2007, and 2012 to be the year of the big catastrophe," he says.