I would like to reply to Martin Durham (January 12) and David Marsh (January 16) both of whom seem to think that the new millennium does not really start until January 1, 2001.

We do not say a baby is one-year-old when it is born, but at the end of its first year.

Following this through logically the Christian calendar will have assumed that during the first year of Jesus Christ's life the year was zero AD. It can't have been called one AD because a year hadn't passed since Jesus was born.

It follows therefore that during Jesus Christ's second year on earth the year was one AD and Jesus himself was one year old.

Further down the timeline, if the second year of Jesus Christ's life was one AD then the 100th year of his life was 99AD and so on. The 2,000th year of his life is 1999AD and at the end of 1999 Jesus celebrates his 2,000th birthday.

Therefore on January 1 2000AD, Jesus begins his 2,001st year which is the beginning of his third millennium. Conclusion: December 31st 1999 is the last day of the second millennium and the third millennium begins on 1st January, 2000.

Christians who celebrate this are not living a lie as suggested by David Marsh!

Tony Taylor,

Grassholme,

Woodthorpe,

York

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.