Welcome to the year 2020. But is this the start of a new decade? This debate always rages at this time, every two lustrums or so. However, regardless of one’s view on the subject there is one item without question: A decade is a period of ten years.
The word decade originated from the Romanized Greek word dekas. It’s meaning is a group of ten. A decade is essentially any group of ten years.
However, the contention arises from any decade to the official Decade (capitalized to differentiate). Many people argue that our current millennium didn’t start until January 1, 2001. Others scoff and say no, it was January 1, 2000.
The same holds true for the Decade. Does this Decade begin on the first day of 2020 or the first day of 2021? The official Anno Domini system of years began with year 1 and states that new Decades don’t begin until 2021, or 1921, 1961, and the millennium on January 1, 2001.
Why did the year system of Anno Domini begin with 1 and not 0. I speculate (wildly) that perhaps because at that time the number zero was ironically non-existent. There is no true zero in the Roman Numeral system that originated in Ancient Rome which remained the standard numerical system until Arabic Numerals replace them circa the 14th Century. In 725CE zero began to be annotated as N in Roman Numerals. It is the origin of our word nihilism.
The base ten of Roman Numerals are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. In the Arabic system we use today: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Do you see the difference?
One could easily get trapped into the history of the Julian and Gregorian calendar systems and how Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor calculated Easter. But I’m already yawning, so I expect you are too.
So, in this absolutely meaningless subject that can spark immense debate, I come to only one conclusion. I’m embarrassed by the fashion of the ‘70s; I love the music of the ‘80s; the Roaring ‘20s was a crazy time (I imagine); the '30s not so much. I hope the 2000 twenties—or 2020s—will be a wonderful decade for me. And for me that starts on January 1, 2020.
Happy New Year!
and
Happy New Decade!