new year day

[Vaughn]

Don't know how a yearly occurance (vernal equinox) can determine when Year 1 was. You lost me there. The birth of Jesus is definitely the event that determines Year 1 (AD and BC and all that). The alleged resurrection would have been in 34AD -- give or take a few years.

I agree that it does make it easier to have everyone on the same calender...or at least have the various calenders sync'ed. I don't think NASA, the US Navy, etc., care much about when decades and/or milliniums start and end, so it might as well be the popular usage that determines that.

[jnantz]

Don't know how a yearly occurance (vernal equinox) can determine when Year 1 was. You lost me there. The birth of Jesus is definitely the event that determines Year 1 (AD and BC and all that). The alleged resurrection would have been in 34AD -- give or take a few years.

I agree that it does make it easier to have everyone on the same calender...or at least have the various calenders sync'ed. I don't think NASA, the US Navy, etc., care much about when decades and/or milliniums start and end, so it might as well be the popular usage that determines that.

as long as you remember to convert back from metric ...

[Vaughn]

as long as you remember to convert back from metric ...

Dang...I keep forgetting about that! The last time I forgot I tried to drive to Yosemite, but I ended up crashing into Mars.

[Tiziano]

It is easy to see how things become so confusing, with the calender being such an arbitrary thing in the first place.

The calendar is everything but arbitrary. It took the best brains and knowledge of their era, to come up with the Julian calendar in 46 BC, and the Gregorian calendar in 1582.
You may want to read about the history and logic of both, it's quite interesting.

[BrianShaw]

The birth of Jesus is definitely the event that determines Year 1 (AD and BC and all that). The alleged resurrection would have been in 34AD -- give or take a few years.

I think you are corect, Vaughn, but Marko's version is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. I need to repeat that to my Pastor so he can use it in a sermon... at the liturgy for the Feast Day of the Nerdy Engineer.

What I wonder, though, is if "AD" started at Jesus' birth... or conception.

[aduncanson]

Just a point of information since so many seem to not be aware, the attempted basing of our calender on the birth of Jesus was seriously flawed. Scholars now date the birth of Jesus to between 4 and 6 BC.

[Vaughn]

Thanks, Tiziano, you are correct. "Arbitary" was a poor choice of a word, I did not like it when I wrote it, but could not think of another way to put it. An "artificial construct" might fit more, but still is not quite right.

The history of calenders would be an interesting study. They do help us keep track of when things happen, but I can't get rid of the feeling that they are a bit of a cheat. While not a Christian, I do like the the way Easter is determined -- it is so organic (first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, or something like that).

Vaughn

[Marko]

I think you are corect, Vaughn, but Marko's version is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. I need to repeat that to my Pastor so he can use it in a sermon... at the liturgy for the Feast Day of the Nerdy Engineer.

What I wonder, though, is if "AD" started at Jesus' birth... or conception.

Well, I did put a proper disclaimer, didn't I?

Or something along those lines, I am not religious enough to bother with those kinds of details.

Knowing that most calendars throughout history were based on some sort of religious fairy tale or the other is all that really matters, and even that mostly as a trivia point.

[pocketfulladoubles]

I do not think of myself as a consumer and never cared much about the oxymoron called "popular culture" so I am quite happy to have the likes of NASA, standards bureaus and the computer science agree with me. The "populace" can have all the sales events they want whenever they want them, for all I'm concerned...

That's fine, but should global catastrophe ever strike and your scientific theories and international standards become as worthless as paper currency, just remember that you'll still be a very small speck in the populace.

[Marko]

That's fine, but should global catastrophe ever strike and your scientific theories and international standards become as worthless as paper currency, just remember that you'll still be a very small speck in the populace.

That's fine too, but should global catastrophe ever strike, the calendar will be the least of my worries. Knowing a little about human behaviour, the biggest worry will be keeping all those other specks far enough away from me. Every holiday/sales season provide a pretty realistic annual exercise.