There’s been a lot of hype about the turn of the millennium lately.  Televangelists go about prophesying doom and darkness based on their interpretation of Scripture.  People buy guns and stock supplies to prepare against the day that Y2K computer failures trash the economy.  The market for “The End Of The World Is Here” signs has probably grown tenfold.  And fireworks sales will skyrocket as the year 2000 grows near.
It seems that we forgot one small detail.	There was no year zero.  The Gregorian calendar used by most of the Western world went straight from 1 BC to 1 AD.  The first year of the millennium is therefore 2001.  Most people don’t know it, though, which is unfortunate for Hollywood; the near-inevitable remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey will never receive the credit it deserves as the “movie of the new millennium.”
	Now, you might be thinking along slightly different lines than these.  “Wait!” you say.  “Jesus was born around 5 BC!  We’ve already missed the millennium!”  Well, that is a valid point, for Christians at least.  For those interested in correcting this gross error, the problem is that the Pope can't just unilaterally declare that next year will be 2005.  Pope Gregory XIII did it to make up for lost leap years, but Pope John Paul II trying to change the calendar probably just wouldn’t work.  For those people interested in the more spiritual side of things, don’t worry too much.  If the world were going to end after the second millennium dating from Christ’s birth, we’d be dead by now.
	Computer experts say that Y2K will cause some problems.  It’s not just one magic date of January 1, 2000 that will cause problems.  For example, 9/9/99 and 01/01/01 are numbers that some computers don’t like.  It’s not known how severe the problems will be, but the world won’t end.
	All this will do absolutely nothing to hinder the millennium craze.  Mere facts cannot stand in the way of popular opinion.  Who cares what year it is, really?  2001 will be the turn of the millennium, but the celebrations of New Year’s Day 2000 will be truly historic.