Turn of the millennium
Millennium change (also millennium change or millennium change ) generally refers to the change of a calendar to a new millennium .
The turn of the millennium problem
According to the Gregorian calendar , which is practically worldwide today, the last turn of the millennium took place between December 31, 2000 and January 1, 2001. The New Year's Eve from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000, when most people celebrated the turn of the millennium, was actually a year too early.
The explanation lies in a so-called fence post problem : The Gregorian calendar or the Christian calendar begins with year 1 and does not know year zero . The first millennium therefore covers the period from January 1st of the year 1 to December 31st of the year 1000. The second millennium began accordingly on January 1st, 1001 and ended on December 31st, 2000. Only when the year 2000 was over, also ended the second millennium. On January 1st, 2001 the third millennium began. This means that the historical calendar-time calculation differs from today's usual age counting, in which a person is only one year old after the end of his first year of life.
Millennium 999/1000 or 1000/1001
The turn of the year 999/1000 as well as the turn of the year 1000/1001 hardly played a role for the people on New Year's Eve 999 or New Year's Eve 1000, since the majority of the population probably did not know about a millennium change. And so the often cited horrors of the year 1000 are a romantic legend. The German King and Emperor Otto III. (HRR) is certified that all of his political plans in the summer and autumn of 999 speak not of fear of saying goodbye to the old millennium, but of enterprise for the new.
Millennium celebrations 1999/2000
Although, as described above, computationally incorrect, with regard to the now appearing "2" at the beginning of the year, this was and is still emotionally equated with the term millennium change and this is used for the year 1999/2000.
That was the reason why the dawn of the new millennium was celebrated with numerous impressive events all over the world on New Year's Eve from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000. The term Millennium was named Word of the Year 1999 by the Society for German Language . The popular belief measures such events high icon to force and occupied it with many hopes and fears. On this occasion, fears of the end of the world were expressed by some people .
In Staffelstein , the birthplace of Adam Ries , the turn of the millennium was not recognized mathematically correctly until the following year.
The year 2000 problem
Justified fears of chaos also played a major role in 1999/2000, as complications with date changes in computer systems could not be ruled out if programmers of important systems had only provided a two-digit date specification, as was quite common in the memory-saving times of early programming (Millennium Bug) . A feared collapse of global computer networks did not materialize.
literature
- Arnold Linke: When does the third millennium begin? - Sternkieker, magazine of the society for folk astronomy e. V. Hamburg, Volume 37, 2nd quarter 2000, No. 181, page 88
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ May, Manfred: World History . Munich and Vienna, 2002, page 55
- ↑ See u. a. Michael Schneider: The ghost of the apocalypse and the bon vivants of doom. Essays and aphorisms . Cologne 1984, p. 11 .
- ^ Rolf Becker: The "magical year 2000" and the legends of a general doom and gloom in the year 1000 . In: Rolf Becker, Gerhard Hotze, Gunda Ostermann, Hans Peterse, Michaela Widhalm (eds.): Theo-Light. Ecumenical-theological journal in Osnabrück and Vechta . No. 1/1998 . Osnabrück, S. 77-80 (ISSN 1435-7208) .
- ↑ Heinz-Joachim Fischer: Afraid of the turn of the millennium? The German King and Emperor Otto III. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 305 , December 31, 1999, p. 3 .
- ↑ Manfred Otzelsberger: In Staffelstein, the millennium will only end in three days. In: welt.de . December 27, 2000, accessed October 7, 2018 .