I refer to the letter from Jesse Brown (South China Morning Post, July 10) on the new millennium.
Mr Brown makes an interesting mistake when he states, contra Geoff Alves (letter, Post, June 15), that the new millennium will start on January 1, 2000.
The real Jesus was born sometime around 4 BC, so to avoid complication let us suppose we consider a 'calendar Jesus'. The day before Jesus was born would be December 31, 1 BC. The day of his birth would be January 1, 1 AD. (It seems strange because there is no 0 AD). The day after would be January 1, 1 AD and so on. After 365 days we reach December 31, 1 AD. So on January 1, in the year 2 AD only one year has passed away. On January 1, 3 AD we can see that two years have passed. On January 1, 4 AD three years. We can now see the pattern. If we follow on to January 1, 2000 then 1,999 years have passed and so we need to go to January 1, 2001 before 2,000 completed years have gone.
DAVID OLLEREARNSHAW Yuen Long