Only 1 Week to Go. . . .

until we celebrate that event that has brought the world world together in peace & love. You all know what I mean. In 1 week we remember that date when people from every nation in the world gathered together to create 1 common calendar. Until that time different nations had different calendars making it difficult for people to get together if you were from different countries.

The problems were many. The year started at a different time for each 1 & even worse they had different year number as well. In Rome it could be 5 Sextilis 568 While in China it would be 15 liùyuè in the year of the Rat. & we won't even go into the symbols some cultures used instead of letters or numbers. No one could make an appointment or set up a date with someone who wasn't on the same calendar as he or she was. So something clearly had to be done.

So representatives from every nation in the world gathered together & after several weeks of debate agreed on what is now 25 December to create a common era that would begin 1 week later as 1 January 1 CE (common Era). they also agreed to refer to count backwards (for years only) from that date for identifying events for that date. Thus the date of the agreement would forever as 25 December 1 BCE (Before Common Era). & that is why on the 25th of December every year we commemorate that event that ensured that created the common era for the entire world & has resulted in 2009 years of complete peace & harmony between all the nations. It is also why slavery was immediately banned. How could we have a common era when some people were being treated unequally? & of course we know women were immediately given complete equality as well.

As an aside, the Mayan representatives were pushing for the world to adopt their calendar. The reason, the Mayan culture was so efficient that they had their calendars printed up until the year that would end on our 21 December 2012. They said it would be an ecological disaster as their recycling plant couldn't handle that huge of an amount of paper & to burn them as they would have to would put way too much CO2 into the air thus kicking off global warming & melting the ice caps. Some people suspect that there was a small group of Mayans that intentionally set things up so that a rumor would be started shortly before their last calendar year that the world would end on the last date of that last year they had printed up. They knew their would be enough gullible people out their to buy that, thus giving the Mayans their revenge.

For those of you who doubt this is why we now refere to years as CE or BCE, I present 1 little piece of evidence from the movie version of A Funny Thing Happenned on the Way to the Forum. We all know that every movie, even fictional ones strive to be as historically accurate on the facts as possible. The movie took place in ancient Rome in the 1st Century CE. Remember the scene where Pseudolus goes to the House of Marcus Lycus with his young master Hero to look for a specific coutesan that hero had fallen in love with. After reclining on a couch Pseudolus was handed a bottle of wine. After reading the label he asked "Was 1 a good year?" The would never have included that line if the CE calendar wasn't already in effect everywhere, now would they????

Now you know the reason why historians refer to dates as CE or BCE. This is why we say "Happy Holidays", sing about "peace on earth" & exchange gifts. & especially why we have had almost 2009 years of uninterupted peace & harmony with nary an unkind word let alone not having a single war or fight of any size.

So may I wish you a "Merry Common Era Day" & "A Happy 2010 CE"

(Illustration source: Cavey @ Lair of the Catholic Caveman The Definition Of 'Biological Solution' )