Now
     Today almost all the western world use the CE ( common era ) dating system. This emerged out of the Gregorian Calendar, which was invented by the office of pope Gregory XIII in 1582 ( only 400 years ago! ).
     The Gregorian Calendar was adopted by Britain and her Colonies in 1751 ( only 250 years ago )
Ten years ago we called this AD ( Anno Domini ), but we don't use latin anymore, as these days it is just confusing jargon, and relies on an expensive public school education to make any sense of it at all. And besides it makes all year ends into a pseudo christian festival, and these days such concepts are alien and irrelevant to the general population, and to some people even offensive and even oppressive, probably!

Why The Scepticism?
     If our current calendar is only 400 years old, then why are we supposed to be celebrating a millennium as if it's a maturing adolescent's 18th birthday celebration?  Is it another vague attempt by the media to whip up hype about a non event?
     Supposing the last twelve generations of my ancestors were living in this calendar, and were aware of it, would they want me to be representing them at the end of this century and getting smashed on lager, and maybe taking a miserable trip down to the so called millennium dome, to have some government propaganda shoved down my throat? I THINK NOT.
Besides, there are several reasons why the millennium date is wrong.

End Of The Century
    I am extremely happy to accept that it might be nearing the end of the century, especially at the end of the year 2000, as the four generations, of my family, that I have communicated with, believe, or believed, that they are, or have been alive in the twentieth century. But the usual celebrations at the new year, I have found to be the most tedious of all the public holidays. Nowhere is there a party within travelling distance, without walking for an hour, and public transport is always non existent on these occasions, Because the country is essentially shut down for a couple of days. The stupidist things always happen, you see people panic shopping as if they were digging in for an air raid. And the shelves in the shops are stripped bare.

The Party
     There are a number of parties, about to go off, at the end of December 1999, as if it is the important one, but all you are celebrating is the date turn to the year 2000. Next year will be the big party, and the plans will come to light early next year.

Reason 1 why the millennium date is wrong
     If you pay any credence to the New Testament of the Christian Bible, there are at least two different dates and eras given to represent the birth of Christ.

1. The reign of king Herod, Found only in Matthew. Herod died in 4 BCE ( 4 b.c. in the christian calendar ) So the " birth of Christ " must have been before the official Birth of Christ date.
2. In Luke, Jesus Christ is born at the time of the census Which is well documented in Roman records as being 6CE ( 6 a.d. christian calendar ). This couldn't have been at the same time as Matthew's account as this was ten years after King Herod's death. And further more ths puts the " birth of Christ ", six years after the official Birth of Christ date.

Reason 2 why the millennium date is wrong
     They didn't understand the concept of 0 ( zero ) and that would put everything back one year.
The Mathematician Richard Pinch wrote in New Scientist magazine on 4th March 2000, that when the concept of Zero was first introduced to Britain, it was such an abstract concept, that a postgraduate course was offered at the University of Oxford. And this was only around 200 years ago.

Reason 3 why the millennium date is wrong
     The act of celebrating a " new year " at the start, is like adding one on. When it's your 10th birthday you are at the start of your 11th year, but you're celebrating 10, not 11. And as a consequence Jan 1st 2000 will be the start of the last year of the first Millennium, not the end of it, it will be 1999 years, and one day..... Not 2000 years!. So were not yet in the 3rd millennium, " whatever that's supposed to be ", We're in the last year of the second. And only on the following year, New years eve 2001, which will be 31st December 2000, will we have actually completed the thousand year cycle.

Reason 4 why should we call it the millennium?
     The word millennium, in English, strictly speaking means one million years, not one thousand. The French seem to have always used milli for thousand. Because a millimetre is a thousandth of a metre.

Notes Regarding The Century

1. In the year 1900, they celebrated the start of the 20th century on 31st December.
2. The govornment confirmed in parliament, this year, that the millennium will change over in a year's time on 31st Dec 2000-1st Jan 2001.
3. The seminal book and film by Arthur. C. Clarke was called 2001, because It was the start of the 21st century

Leap Year Confusion
     Julius Caesar is recognised as the real father of the modern calendar system. He sorted out the mis-aligned calendar that was previously in use by having 460 days in 46BC. From then on we have used the regular pattern of 365 days, and 366 on leap years.
    The origional leap year day was on feb 24 not 29. The 23rd and the next day were merged into one day and lasted 48hours. This was later adopted by the Catholic Church and was the standard form, until the 1751 act of parliament which brought Britain and her Colonies into line with the Gregorian Calendar used in the rest of Europe, but they made a cobblers of the leap year computation because they were generally opposed to the catholic church.

    While everything is not quite as advanced and peaceful as Sir Arthur predicted just yet. It is wonderful to see all the reports around the world from countries such as China and America, who are having their official millennium celebrations. Where are all the British and European administrators now? squirming with embarrasment probably, after their hoax millenneum celebrations, a year early are now generally recognised as fraud.
    And even church representatives, admitting that their christ birth date could be 6 or more years late because Herod died in 6 bc. But they don't really know anyway. No apology from chrisendom is expected either!!
    A great interview on the BBC was heard from an official Greenwich timesmith himself, who skirted over half a dozen of my arguments, outlined in the paragraphs above, a year ago!

Even the The Queen has just had her millenneum celebration, because this is the real one!