Is this the beginning of a new decade? Yes and No!
By MUNGAI KIHANYA
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
12 January 2020
There has been some
debate on several social media platforms on whether 1st January 2020 was
the beginning of a new decade or not. As often happens with such
matters, some one asked me for my opinion. My quick answer was in the
form of another question: the beginning of which decade?
A decade is a period
of ten years and we can begin counting from any date. For example, if we
start from today, 12th January 2020, then a decade will end on 11th
January 2030.
On one side of the
decade debate are people saying that it started at the beginning of this
year – 2020 – and on the other are those who maintain that it will start
on 1st January 2021.
The first group
argues that since the century started in 2000, it follows that the first
ten years ended on 31st December 2009, the second decade wen
up to 31st December 2019 and, so, 1st January 2020
was the beginning of the third decade.
Notice that when the
argument is put that way, we have stated “which decade” we are arguing
about. It is “the third decade”; presumably, since 1st
January 2000.
The second group goes
much further backwards in history: to the beginning of the Anno Domini
(AD) era. According to Pope Gregory XIII, Jesus Christ was born on 25th
December in the year 1 BC. He was then circumcised and officially given
his name seven days later on 1st January in the year 1 AD.
This is how we got
the so-called Gregorian calendar that we use today. It was actually
introduced by this Pope in October 1582 AD. Years later, historians and
archeologists established that Jesus was actually born somewhere between
7 BC and 3 BC; but definitely not 1 BC.
Clearly, the exact
date of Jesus’ birth is not known and the calendar is already widely
used. So, there is no need to re-set it. Nevertheless, the important
thing to note is that, in the Gregorian system, there is no year zero
AD.
For that reason, the
first decade AD runs from 1st January 01 to 31st
December 10 AD. Similarly, the first century ended on 31st
December 100 AD and the first millennium lasted up to 31st
December 1000 AD.
Continuing in that
format, it turns out that the 202nd decade of the AD era (in
other words, the second decade of this century) will end on 31st
December 2020.
So, which of these
two arguments is correct? The second one clearly wins the day because it
clearly defines “which decade” it is referring to. The first group is
not clear about that.
However, those who
celebrated the coming of a new decade on 1st January 2020
were right to do so. They commemorated the beginning of the 2020s
decade. That is, ten years since the beginning of the 2000s.
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