Millennium begins in 2001

When I opened the newspaper on Thursday night, I was outraged. I read a letter written by a Mr. John Johansen which said the that it was "legitimate and mathematically sound to celebrate the beginning of the new millennium on January 1 in the year 2000." He also cursed a pox upon all the naysayers and party poopers who said otherwise.

There was no year zero. It went straight from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. (as our calender goes). So the year 1 A.D. was the first year of the first millennium. Now if you take one and add 999 to it, you get 1000. So that means 999 years after the year 1, it was 1000 A.D. That was one millennium (1-1000 A.D.) The second millennium started on year 1001 A.D. Add 999 years to that, and you get the year 2000 . . . the end of the second millennium.Now, as logic serves, the next millennium won't start until January 1, 2001.If you are still not convinced, let me use my "penny" analogy. Say you are trying to make some money by rounding up your loose change. You start counting pennies. You count 100 which equals one dollar. That is your first dollar. You keep counting, putting aside your first dollar. You find another penny. Now you have 101 pennies.

That one penny you found was the start of a new dollar. Now, take all this into context of years, and you get my point.

Adam Hunter

Sandy