The Government is to spend millions at midnight this New Year's Eve to celebrate the millennium.
I thought the next century, that is the 21st century, and the third millennium would not start until midnight of December 31 2000 which marks the end of the 20th century as well as the second millennium.
According to my dictionary, a century denotes a period of 100 years and a millennium 1,000 years. Since we did not have the year zero, the first year of the first century started from year one, the second century year 101 and so on. So, the 21st century should start on January 1, 2001, the first year of the next millennium.
I suppose the number 2000 is too appealing, not to mention the public concern about the Y2K bug and that authorities around the world have perpetrated the misnomer.
Perhaps someone knowledgeable on the subject could shed light, or the Home Affairs Department, or the Observatory, our timekeeper, would care to comment.
H.C. NG Central
