Millennium

Millennium (pl. millennia) comes from the Latin mill, thousand, and annus, year. A millennium is thus an arbitrary period of one thousand (1,000 years). I guess that then begs the question, why is a million called 'a million'? It turns out that milion ('large thousand'), also Latin, means 1,000,000, which explains why the two words are so closely related.

If you're reading this before the year, let's say, 2100, you probably saw the new millennium arrive on New Year's Eve, 1999. I was only eight at the time, and I remember being told the following morning how lucky I was to be alive at this time, and how few people are actually around to see the transition between millennia. Of course only being as old as I was at the time, this went in one ear and straight out the other- 'the year 2000' had next to know meaning for me then. And I've never really thought much of it since, and I'm not sure any of us pay any real thought to it either.

The fact is, a millennium is totally arbitrary. When a millennium ends and a new one begins depends on the calendar you're using. For example, a millennium ending on the Gregorian calendar does not coincide with the same event on the Indian calendar, the Hindu calendar, the Chinese calendar or the Hebrew calendar. So it's not whe a millennium takes place that's important- it's merely the sheer length of time in question in the first place.

Let's look back a thousand years to a World with a population of only 300 million. This may seem a big number, but it's actually just less than the current population of the US, and only about 4% of out total global population today. In a time where gunpowder was only just being invented, a thousand years ago would look a totally different world to us now.

Today we fling the word "thousand" around everywhere with little hesitation- 1,000 isn't really a big number. $1000 or £1000 isn't a particularly large amount of money, not when one man can own tens of billions. A thousand of anything doesn't really carry much impact any more; 1000 miles is a long way, yes, but not an unimaginably huge distance. So what about 1000 years?

Ask any geologist and he'll tell you a thousand years is a mere blink of an eye, and astronomers and astrophysicists barely even recognise a time period as short as that. But for us, as a person, a thousand years is most definitely a long time. I don't know what the life expectancy of humans was 1000, 500 or even 100 years ago, so I can't tell you how many generations a thousand years into history represents- I'd guess approaching thirty. And that's a lot. Most of us have a fairly good idea of what life was like for our parents, grandparents and probably even great grandparents. But that's only three generations- nowhere near thirty.

But despite this, science and technology have come such a long way, and we've discovered so much- particularly in the last few decades- that we know in pretty good detail what was going on a thousand years ago. This knowledge has, in effect, reduced a thousand years to a fairly modest amount of time. And I think where this is where the problem lies- we know so much about our history that we've become detached with how long ago we're actually talking about. When we really think about it, a thousand years is a bloody long time by anyone's standards.

So let's try a thousand years into the future. We don't know for sure what's going to happen a thousand years down the line. Sure we can make predictions, but we'll never really know for sure what will happen, until it happens. Looking into the future, at least for me, has a much bigger impact than looking back the same period into history. I reckon this is simply because of the uncertainty behind looking forward in time.

Maybe my ramblings here have helped to put things into a little more perspective; I know it has for me- that's partly why I wrote it in the first place. A millennium is a long time, and being alive during the transition between them, whichever calendar you're using, is something worth remembering. You are after all in the minority.

Here is a lilltel fact i learnt a while back:
The actual Millennium did not start on January 1st 2000 but on January 1st 2001, because as we know even though though we start a millenium from AD, the day Jesus Christ was born (even though it has been found out by historians, that a better approximation of the year he was born is 6BC), years do no start at year 0, we dont have a 0th of a month, we start with the first of the month, so 2 millennia, after year 1 the year we start is 2001, so the year 2001 marked the end of the secound millennium.
Anouther Fact:
Due to 2001 being the millenium, in London, the Millennium Dome, that was opened on Jan 1st 2000, was opened not only on the wrong year but, it didn't even survive to the Millenium as it was so unsuccesful it was shut down.

I was just meening to be some interesting facts, to be honest you could celebrate the millennium eny year you want, that fact that we try to celebrate it 2000 after ad is wrong the world and humans have been around a lot longer, so 2000 was proberly thousands and thousands of years ago, its quite stupid we pick a time that jesus was born around that time, and act like from now on there were no years before this year. Ah well, alls well, that ends well.

I wouldn't quite package it like that. Though, what you should realize first is that time is a human invention. That's why there are so many different time systems and calendars. You can set the millennium to be celebrated anytime. The reason for picking Jesus' birthday was the importance it plays in world history in general. First off, you have to consider the context for the Gregorian calendar.

Gregorian Calendar
Christianity is a very influential religion, and at the time they made the calendar, people were much more religious focused and willing to accept Jesus birth as a landmark date. But even out of this context, I think it's fair to use that date as a reference point. You can't deny the importance of the Christian religion and Jesus' life on modern society. If memory recalls correctly, at least over 1 billion people in this world call themselves Christians. No matter how much you might not like it, Christianity heavily affects the world in which we live today. I think the Gregorian calendar is quite a good time system, myself. And even though some people would change BC (Before Christ) and AD (Ano Domini, or "in the year of the Lord") to BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Current Era) to make it a more secular sounding time system, Jesus birth is still an important date in the history of the world. And frankly, we will never know what year we are in since recorded history hasn't been around as long as humans have. So, in that regard, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. xD