Sir, - We had a spate of letters on this subject last year, with writers telling us that we should not be celebrating the millennium until December 31st, 2000. Now Charles Trench has started off this year with a new criterion which he calls the Christian Era. Just when this era is supported to have started I will not even try to conjecture; maybe he is thinking back to the system of counting years when the period was referred to as annus ab incarnatione Domini, or the incarnation of our Lord.
I think I will leave it to the theologians amongst the readers to sort this one out. However, since Mr Trench's arithmetic appears similar to that of other correspondents, it would seem that he has come up with nothing new, and is still using the Year 1 AD as a base. This would be perfectly logical if Jesus has been born on the night of December 31st in the year we refer to as 1 BC, but he wasn't. As every school child knows, he was born on the night of December 24th and not only that, it was probably in the year we refer to as 7 BC. Which means that we have all missed it and should have been celebrating the millennium last Christmas Eve.
The problem which Mr Trench and others seem to have in accepting 1999 as the last year in the millennium is the fact they are unable to find a year 0, which is caused by the year 1 AD being preceded by 1 BC. To give credit where due, they are perfectly right in their basic thinking and arithmetic. However, the system of dating in use before our present era of annus Domini was annus gratiae or Year of Grace; this was where the New Year started with Christmas Day, as portrayed by Bede in his chronological writings.
The present muddle started - when New Year's Day moved gradually back to the Roman date of January 1st. This meant that the assumed date for Christ's nativity now occurred during the year 1 BC. As a consequence, that year should no longer have been called 1 BC, but referred to as "The year of the birth of Our Lord"; thus creating the year 0 which your letter writers are looking for.
This is why I, and the majority of the population; will be celebrating the millennium on the night of December 31st, 1999. I do hope Mr Trench and others will feel able to join in. - Yours, etc.,
Gregg Olympry,
Fermoy, Co Cork.