It happens every thousand years. A page of the calendar turns, and a new millennium begins.
As the year 2000 A.D. draws closer, excitement about the millennium is beginning to swell. Big parties are being planned for New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 1999. One group has already reserved a party site, at the pyramids in Egypt, and issued invitations.Of course, calendrical purists insist that the next millennium won't really begin until 2001 A.D., because the present one began in the year 1001, not 1000. There was no year 0, they point out.
And some religious historians say the new millennium actually started this year - in 1996 - because early calendarmakers miscalculated the date of Jesus Christ's birth as the starting point for the calendar that is now used throughout the world. A more probable date of the birth, they say, would be 4 B.C.
No matter what the purists and historians may say, most people will undoubtedly think of the new millennium and the new century as beginning on Jan. 1, 2000. Something about those three zeroes seems to fascinate us.
For many religious groups, the approach of a new millennium has significant connotations. Some evangelical Christians expect the arrival of the next thousand years to bring the end of the world - the apocalypse, Armageddon - and the second coming of Christ.
Other Christians with a less apocalyptic view of the millennium are preparing to observe its arrival as marking the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, a time for religious celebration, spiritual reflection and renewal.
Cult experts are making an ominous forecast about the millennium's approach, saying it will trigger an increase in doomsday cults, those with charismatic leaders who promise their followers salvation from hellfire on the coming Judgment Day.
On the cyberspace front, the millennium's approach has electronics experts fretting about the need to reprogram computers all over the world to recognize new dates that begin with the numbers "2" and"0" instead of "1" and "9."
Other portents abound. A new skyscraper in New York City has been named the Millennium Building. A little volume called "The Millennium Book" was published several years ago. Probably some parents will be naming their newborns Millennium in the year 2000. Get used to seeing that word. It's going to be everywhere.
Probably nobody in the world is more excited about the new millennium than Jay Gary, of Colorado Springs, Colo. He calls himself the "Millennium Doctor," directs an organization called Celebration 2000 and wrote a book called "The Star 2000: Our Journey Toward Hope."
Celebration 2000 was formed as a consulting group in 1989, Gary says, "to support creative projects to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ."
If you get in touch with Gary - not easy to do, since he's constantly traveling around the country talking about the millennium - and ask him to send you information about Celebration 2000, you soon will receive a 38-page computer printout as well as reprints of many newspaper articles, copies of two soft-cover books, several pamphlets and press releases.
Gary hopes to assemble facts about every event, religious and secular, being planned to celebrate the year 2000. As a next step, he hopes to make all those assembled facts available on the Internet so that computer users around the globe can read and contribute even more information.
Confusion about whether the millennium begins in 2000 or 2001 - or in 1996 - doesn't faze Gary. He thinks the celebrations could and should stretch over all those years.
A former conference planner for a network linked to evangelist Billy Graham, Gary thinks the millennium's primary emphasis should be on the anniversary of Christ's birth. "Dec. 25, 2000, will no doubt be celebrated as the most memorable Christmas ever," Gary declares in his book.
Here are a few of the events in his Celebration 2000 listing:
- Holy Year 2000: More than 13 million tourists are expected to visit Rome from Christmas 1999 through 2000 to celebrate the Great Jubilee of the Incarnation of Christ, declared by Pope John Paul II.
- Times Square 2000: More than 1 million people are expected to be packed in and near New York City's Times Square on Dec. 31, 1999, to welcome 2000.
- World Millennium Charity Balls: The Millennium Society, an international group with headquarters in Washington, D.C., will stage one of these events on Dec. 31, 1999, at the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. Simultaneous celebrations will be held at 23 other locations around the world, including the Eiffel Tower in France, the Acropolis in Greece, the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal in India, plus some sites in the U.S. to be chosen soon.
- Tom Bryant, president of the Millennium Society, says a committee will soon be announcing a competition among U.S. cities for selection as a World Millennium Charity Ball location.
The charity that the balls will support is a Millennium Scholars Fund, Bryant said, which is already arranging for college student exchanges between developing and developed countries around the world. Funds have already been raised at Millennium Countdown parties, which are being held on New Year's Eves before the big 1999 occasion.
- Israel 2000: Some 3 million visitors are expected to tour the Holy Land during 2000 to commemorate the anniversary of Christ's birth. Special events will be held in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem.
- Earth Day 2000: More than 300 million people in 150 nations are expected to participate in Earth Day events on April 22, 2000, which also will mark the 30th anniversary of the annual environmental festival.
- Expo 2000: More than 40 million visitors are expected at this millennial world's fair in Hanover, Germany, from June 1 to Oct. 31, 2000.
- Global March for Jesus: Thousands of Christians around the globe are expected to take part in street marches on June 10, 2000, to celebrate the 2,000th birthday of Jesus Christ.
- Olympics 2000: More than 10,000 athletes from 171 nations are expected to compete in the Games of the XXVIIth Olympiad in Sydney, Australia, from Sept. 16 to Oct. 1, 2000.
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For more information about the Millennium Society, write its North American office, 1555 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20036, or call (202) 332-1999.