I hope that, wherever you find yourself in the world, you have yourself a よいお年お.
You know I'll be thinking of you as i stand here, alone on a mountain top, crammed in with hundreds of my closest strangers. My brother and dad crapped out after all our temple hopping today, so its just me and the crowds and 17 monks and their 74-ton bell here in Kyoto.
But between the clouds, the moon is full, and when the clouds do come, they bring me snow: dusting down in the yellow floodlight. It's come down all the way from Hokkaido tonight, little white pieces of home to keep me company.
It's just over two hours now before year's turning here, on the other side of the world. Gong will go the bell, and gone will be the first decade of this brave new millennia.
I hope this beginning finds you well, and just maybe, if you listen closely, you'll catch the faintest echoes of the Chion-in bell in the night, chasing the change around the globe.
forgive my forthcoming but i felt i should mention that it is not in effect the end of the decade, it is the commencement of the last year of the decade. Common mistake that was done en masse with the "millenium" celebrations when somehow it was decided that the millenium ended in at the beginning of the year 2000. The example is thus, you cannot say you have read a 1000 pages (or in this case 10 pages) until the last word on the 1000th (or 10th) page has been read and page 1001 or 11 have begun. 2010 must end for the 10 year period of a decade to pass...
ReplyDeletesee how i drop the knowledge? SOOOOO Gangsta!
Happy Gregorian New Year Nicholas
Well, to be fair, the Gregorian calendar operates on the numerical system derived with the "Anno Domini" or "Year of the Lord", commonly abbreviated as AD.
ReplyDeleteThis number came about in and around 525, when Dionysius Exiguus came up with that number when computing Christian Easter dates. He approximated that the incarnation of Christ had occurred some 525 years earlier, although gave no reference to any dating system, nor does he give justification for choosing that specific date.
Therefore, our entire numerical dating system is an approximation and does not necessarily reflect an actual 2010 years since the calendar was supposed to have begun. There are missing years along the way.
But you are right to mention that if we are going to go by the Gregorian Calendar (which interestingly enough was not adopted by Britain until 1752, before which the 1st of January was not considered the beginning of the new year; this is a rather modern concept... March 1st was a common start date for the year, but I digress), then since there was no Year 0, it went sequentially -2BC, -1BC, 1AD, 2AD, then the actual decade doesn't begin until 2011.
But are we celebrating the end of the actual decade, or are we celebrating that we have to write a different number in our dates. By the logic we propose, 1980 was actually in the 70s, and 1990 was actually in the 80s. So, I guess we just measure our decades differently now, and use that third digit as our basis point.
Just a few thoughts. Oh, by the way, Happy New Year!
Fack.
ReplyDeleteWay to ruin a pretty thong with all your logicking about.
Can we agree to celebrate one year? Celebrate that we all survived for 365 more days that we can actually avow to have experienced and that, though no new gods lived or died, and no new callendars were invented, we had a year, and it was A Year In The Life.
Or if even that fit the logik, then maybe we should just listen to Justin's dad:
"Universe is 14 billion years old. Seems silly to celebrate one year. Be like having a fucking parade every time I take a piss."
http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays
I should have mentioned that the purpose of my comment is that there is so much controversy and different interpretations, that we have to make our own meanings. So, I choose to celebrate the beginning of a new decade right now, and look forward to where the next ten years will take us all... Because that is how we make meaning for ourselves in this crazy world that is billions of years old.
ReplyDeleteLife is short, and we must fill it with as much joy and jubilation as possible.