The New Decade
I received an email from a friend yesterday in which she wrote, "Happy New Year and Happy New Decade!" She then went on to enthuse, "Let's hope this decade is better than the last." As I was framing my reply, I paused. Was this truly the beginning of a new decade? Wouldn't a decade start with the number One? If you are counting, say, ten apples, you wouldn't pick up the first one and call it Zero. So how can 2010 be the start of a new decade? The new decade will begin a year from now, on January first, 2011.
It reminds me of when I was writing The Prophetess, which took place at the end of 1999, on the eve of 2000, and the raging debates that were going on about when the twentieth century actually ended and the twenty-first began. When the clock ticked over to January first, 2000, people shouted, "Happy New Millennium," when in fact we had another year to go.
And while I am pondering this knot of decades and millennia, I find it odd that we start a new year on January first. It makes more sense to change the year on a solstice or an equinox. For example, March 21, the first day of spring, makes a much more reasonable New Year's day if you ask me.
And of course, all this hoopla involves a calendar that pertains to only part of the world's population. There are the calendars of other cultures to consider, calendars that are structured according to the moon, or the stars, or the sun. And of course, not everyone marks their historical time periods as a chain of events marching from the birth of Jesus. Calendars all over the world have their beginnings in different epochs and were jump-started by various monumental events - for example, the Islamic calendar counts years from the Prophet Mohammed's (pbuh) emigration from Mecca to Medina.
But if we wish to keep the discussion to the Western calendar, it still isn't simple, because our calendar is off by four years - Jesus wasn't born in the Year One. Scholars have determined that he was actually born in the year 4 B.C. which means we are now living in the year 2014.
So I guess my friend is right after all. We ARE living in a new decade!
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