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Photo illustration by Robin Mendez
'Round Midnight: Different cultures reckon Year One from the event their traditions deem most significant.
Does anybody really know what time it is?
A closer look at the upcoming millennium reveals that time is a matter of culture
By Laura Bernell
For some folks, it's the '60s all over again. By the Jewish calendar, this is the year 5760.
"I'm very excited about that," says Rabbi Eitan Julius of Congregation Sinai in Willow Glen. "It's just the beginning of the '60s, and here I am a [UC] Santa Cruz graduate and I get to do the '60s all over again."
The event from which people begin counting time varies from one religious culture to another. But for purposes of business, commerce, international trade and making plans to meet a friend for a latte, the world has generally agreed to start new years on Jan. 1 and to recognize this particular New Year's Day as the beginning of the next millennium. This is all based on the Gregorian calendar, the standard by which most of the Western world now divides and counts years.
There is, however, as Rabbi Julius so eloquently puts it, a "willy-nilliness to the whole thing."
Indeed. It wasn't until nearly 1,600 years after the birth of Christ that Jan. 1 became New Year's Day. Throughout the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century), most European countries began each new year on March 25. That's because Pope Gregory XIII introduced his calendar in 1582 to correct some of the errors in the calendar Julius Caesar ordered in 46 B.C.E. To adjust for the irregularities, the year 46 B.C.E. was declared to be 15 months long. This year was known as the Year of Confusion.
Roman Catholic countries immediately adopted the Gregorian calendar. Non-Catholic nations, such as England and Germany, however, did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until the 18th century. England waited until 1752 to make the switch. Turkey didn't adopt it until 1928.
This arbitrary change in calendars even affected American customs and history. George Washington was born in 1732, 20 years before England changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Owing to the change of calendar systems during his youth, our first president's birthdate was changed from Feb. 11 to Feb. 22.
Reckoning Year One
Different cultures reckon Year One from the event their traditions deem most significant. For Buddhists, that event is the date on which Buddha was born, enlightened and passed away--all on the full moon in May, some 500 centuries before the Common Era (B.C.E.). "So Full Moon of May is the beginning of the New Year," explains Rev. Bhandi Gnanadhaja, chief incumbent monk of the Dharmapala Institute for Meditation and Research in Campbell.
Sri Lankan Buddhists living in Silicon Valley have three New Years, Rev. Gnanadhaja explains. "The second New Year is not only for Buddhist people, but for people who believe in astrology," he says.
In April, the sun moves from the House of Pisces to the House of Aries. This falls on April 13 or 14. "So, on that day we have an island-wide celebration in Sri Lanka to celebrate the New Year. Everything begins anew. Sri Lankans clean their houses, paint their houses, get new clothes, prepare new foods, begin new relations or renew old ones," Rev. Gnanadhaja says.
For observant Jews, time began with the Creation, traditionally reckoned to have taken place 3,760 years and three months before the beginning of the Christian Era. To find the year in the Hebrew calendar, add 3,761 to the Gregorian calendar. Hence, this is the year 5760.
The Islamic calendar begins with Mohammed's journey from Mecca to Medina in C.E. 622, by the Gregorian calendar. The oldest Roman calendar dated the beginning of time from the founding of the city of Rome in 753 B.C.E.
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Full Moon Day: Bhandi Gnanadhaja, of the Dharmapala Institute for Meditation in Campbell, says the full moon of May is the beginning of the Buddhist New Year.
Multicultural Millennium
Nonetheless, various cultures represented here in the Santa Clara Valley recognize the common New Year and will bring their customs and mix their meanings into local celebrations.
"We accept that most people celebrate January 1 as the beginning of the new year," Rev. Gnanadhaja says. "We think it is not our own New Year; it is the common New Year for the world." Buddhist visitors to Rev. Gnanadhaja's temple will celebrate Dec. 31 by dancing and singing. Later, monks will chant verses from the Buddha's writings to bless the people and give them holy water to drink.
"Our people will accumulate positive energy by doing meritorious deeds in the temple, by practicing morality," Rev. Gnanadhaja says. "And especially we tie a small thread on the right hand. The thread is for protection and well-being."
Jews will observe the Sabbath throughout New Year's because Dec. 31 falls on a Friday night. The Jewish Sabbath begins Fridays at sunset and ends Saturdays at sunset. Rabbi Julius sees this coincidence as a "not-so-subtle hint from on-high."
"Shabbas [Sabbath] morning is going to be New Year's Day. I'd like people to appreciate that Shabbas is our gift, a sanctuary in time to be restful and free of all the chaos that may be breaking out. The Sabbath is between humanity and God. It is not between humans and their PC clocks."
The rabbi points out that observant Jews abstain from travel and from using electricity (a form of work) on the Sabbath. "We get a 24-hour break from this whole thing."
For Muslims, the millennium occurs during the holy month of Ramadan.
"I believe that all good Muslims will be praying in mosques and reciting the Koran," says Ayman Fathy Tolba, an observant Muslim who does marketing research for an international computer firm in Santa Clara. "In this sense, we will start the next millennium with prayers and supplications."
Tolba, an Egyptian emigrant who has lived in the United States for nearly three years, explains that during Ramadan, Muslims fast from from dawn to sundown, perform good deeds and try to behave correctly in general.
"We recite the Holy Koran and eat and pray together. The last ten days in Ramadan are the best. ... Muslims believe that there is a special night in the last third of Ramadan where Allah rewards those who have done the best deeds with the best intentions. To those people, he grants his forgiveness. These days will start on or around December 29, depending on the exact [Gregorian] date of starting Ramadan," Tolba explains.
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Age of Aquarius: Rabbi Julius Eitan, of Willow Glen's Congregation Sinai, says Jews are looking forward to the '60s--the 5760s.
Tweaking Time
All calendars recognize two natural divisions of time: the day and the year. These divisions are each based on the earth's relationship to the sun. The unit of the day varies, but by the most constant measure, the sidereal day used by astronomers, a day equals 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds.
It takes 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and some seconds for the earth to make one solar revolution. People have devised various ways of making up for the unevenness. The early Greeks made their year 354 days long, 11 or so days shorter than the actual solar year. To make up the difference, they added an extra month just about every other year, except that every eight or nine years they omitted it. And of course, we tweak time with a "leap day" every four years.
Still, Pope Gregory's calendar will be one day ahead of the sun in the year 4316.
Willy-nilliness notwithstanding, citizens of the world are apt to assign meaning to the grand yardstick of time that approaches us.
"[The millennium] still has some sort of sense of demarcation to it, and I don't think that's a bad thing," Rabbi Julius says. "I like nostalgia; I've been making a list of the best record albums of the century (including the Beatles' White Album). I believe we are entering the 21st century with certain challenges: attaining civil and human rights, feeding the hungry, ending world inequities, stewarding the Earth. If it takes changing two nines into two zeros to recognize that in the next century we have to do something about humanitarian and ecological issues--then good! Let it be," the rabbi concludes.
But can any of us really look ahead 1,000 years? Can we presume to make not just a New Year's resolution, but a new century's resolution? Can we resolve anything for a whole millennium?
"Every new year, we have a lot of new expectations, and we make new determinations. We can think [ahead] one or two years for our goals, but not for a thousand; we cannot focus on a thousand years at a time," Rev. Gnanadhaja says.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
