Information AboutYear Zero |
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A year zero does not exist in the Christian Era and its Gregorian Calendar or actually its anterior Julian Calendar . A year zero does exist in and in the Astronomical Year Numbering with a defined year zero equal 1 BC, as well as in some Buddhist and Hindu Lunar Calendars . JULIAN AND GREGORIAN CALENDARS The Roman Numeral System has no symbol for null, but instead the Latin words ''nulla'' and ''nihil'', which in normal speech meant ''nothing'', were used. ''Nulla'' was used whenever zero was a member of a series of numbers, whether the other numbers were Roman Numerals or Latin words. Dionysius Exiguus calculated (in AD 525) that after the end of the 13th Metonic Cycle of the Diocletian or Martyr Era in the year 247 (=13x19) i.e. AD 531, it should be passed about 15 additional metonic cycles since Jesus 's birth. So he decided to mark the first year of his new series of Easter Tables as the year D.XXXII since Incarnation equals (15+13) x 19. Dionysius used the Latin zero in the very same table wherein he introduced his ''anno Domini'' era, but in a neighboring column—it was the first in 525 , did not specify whether he began his count at one or zero (nor did he mention BC). Bede was the first historian to use a BC year and hence the first to adopt the convention of no year 0 between BC and AD, in his '' Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum '' (''Ecclesiastical history of the English people'', 731 ). Previous Christian histories used '' Anno Mundi '' (in the year of the world"), or ''anno Adami'' ("in the year of Adam", beginning five days later, used by Africanus), or ''anno Abrahami'' ("in the year of Abraham", beginning 3,412 years later according to the Septuagint , used by Eusebius ), all of which assigned "one" to the year beginning at Creation , or the creation of Adam , or the birth of Abraham , respectively. All began with year 1 because the counting numbers begin with one, not zero. Bede simply continued this earlier tradition relative to the AD era. Bede continued to use this zero epact in his ''De temporum ratione'' (''On the reckoning of time'', 725 ), but did not use it between BC and AD. ''Nihil'' was used for a remainder of zero when a number was evenly divisible (see arguments two and five in the ''nineteen year cycle of Dionyius'' just cited). Bede did not sequentially number any other calendar units ( Days Of The Month , weeks of the year, or months of the year — but he was aware of the Jewish Days Of The Week which were numbered beginning with one (except for the seventh which was called the ''Sabbath'') and partially numbered the days of his Christian week accordingly (''Lord's day, second day, …, sixth day, Sabbath'' in English translation). In chapter II of book I of ''Ecclesiastical history'', Bede stated that , which since the 4th Century has been celebrated on 25 March , which was nine months before the date on which his birth is celebrated, 25 December . Bede's singular use of 'BC' continued to be used sporadically throughout the Middle Ages (albeit with a correct year). It is often argued that Bede did not use a year zero because he did not know about the number zero. Although our ''symbol'' for zero (0) did not enter Europe until the eleventh century, Bede and Dionysius were well aware of two ''words'' for zero—the Latin words ''nulla'' and ''nihil'', which in normal speech meant ''nothing''. ''Nulla'' was used whenever zero was a member of a series of numbers, whether the other numbers were Roman Numerals or Latin words. The first documented use of zero in the Hindu-Arabic Numeral System occurred towards the end of the 9th century. However, the Arabic numerals were totally unknown in Europe until about the end of the first millennium and not generally used before Renaissance time. The first extensive use of 'BC' (hundreds of times) occurred in ''Fasciculus Temporum'' by Werner Rolevinck in 1474 , alongside years of the world (''anno mundi''). The ''anno Domini'' method of numbering years was not widely used in Western Europe until the 9th Century , and the 1 January (however the Caesar 's New Year's Day ) to 31 December historical year was not uniform throughout Western Europe until 1752 . The terms ''anno Domini'', ''Dionysian era'', ''Christian era'', ''vulgar era'', and ''common era'' were used interchangeably between the Renaissance and the 19th Century , at least in Latin . But ''vulgar era'' was suppressed in English at the beginning of the Twentieth Century after ''vulgar'' acquired the meaning of "offensively coarse", replacing its original meaning of "common" or "ordinary". Consequently, historians regard all these eras as equal. HISTORIANS Since s, for whom ease of mathematical calculation is more important, have used for several centuries a defined leap year zero equal to BC 1 of the traditional Christian era. In common usage Anno Domini 1 is preceded by the year 1 BC , without an intervening year zero. Thus the year "2006" actually signifies "the 2006th year". Neither the choice of calendar system (whether Julian or Gregorian ) nor the era (''Anno Domini'' or Common Era ) determines whether a year zero will be used. If writers do not use the convention of their group (historians or astronomers), they must explicitly state whether they include a year 0 in their count of years, otherwise their historical dates will be misunderstood. No historian includes a year 0 when numbering years in the current standard era. Thus, regardless of the appellation or calendar employed (Julian or Gregorian), 1 BC always immediately precedes AD 1. Historians even refuse to use a year 0 when using negative years before our positive era, hence their −1 immediately precedes 1 (for example, V. Grumel, ''La chronologie'' (1958), page 30). ASTRONOMERS Astronomers include a year 0 immediately before year 1. The first use of an astronomical year 0 is traditionally attributed to Jacques Cassini in his ''Tables astronomiques'' (''Astronomical Tables'', 1740 ). His stated reasons for including a year zero were (page 5, translated from French ):
But Philippe De La Hire had used a year zero earlier in 1702 in his ''Tabulæ Astronomicæ'' (''Astronomical Tables'') in the form ''Christum o.'' ("Christ 0"), without explanation. Both Cassini and La Hire used BC years before their year 0 and AD years thereafter (hence the sequence 1 BC, 0, AD 1). That is why Cassini stated that their ''sum'' yielded the interval. For example, 1 + 1 = 2. Beginning in the 19th century, some astronomers began to use negative years before their year 0, while other astronomers continued to use BC years before their year 0. By the mid 20th Century , all astronomers were using negative years before year 0 (hence the sequence −1, 0, 1). Thus modern astronomers would state that the years' ''difference'' yields the interval, just as it does if the years are both positive or both negative. For example, 1 − (−1) = 2, and 2000 − 1999 = 1. Although 'AD' is omitted from later years, leaving a bare number, a positive sign (+) is sometimes prefixed to the number. Because of possible confusion with the earlier use of an astronomical BC, only in the modern version can it be said that astronomical year 0 equals the historical year 1 BC. one less than the equivalent BC year, hence -0001 = 2 BC. Because only ISO 646 (7-bit ASCII ) characters are allowed by ISO 8601, the minus signs are hyphens. OTHER YEAR ZERO TRADITIONS South Asian moon calendars All eras used with Hindu and Buddhist Calendar s, such as the Saka Era or the Kali Yuga , begin with a year 0 because all of these calendars use elapsed, expired, or complete years, in contrast with most other calendars which use current years. A complete year had not yet elapsed for any date in the year beginning at the epoch, thus that could not be year 1 — instead, it was year 0. This is similar to the Western method of stating a person's age — people do not reach age one until one year has elapsed since birth (but their age during the year beginning at birth is specified in months, not usually as age zero; however if ages were specified in years and months, such a person would be said to be, for example, 0 years and 6 months old). Mesoamerican Maya historians Many Maya historians, but not all, assume (or used to assume) that a year 0 exists in the modern calendar and thus specify that the epoch of the Long Count of the Maya Calendar occurred in 3113 BC rather than 3114 BC. This would require the sequence 1 BC, 0, AD 1 as in early astronomical years. THIRD MILLENNIUM Historians and the mathematically inclined consider that the 3rd Millennium began on 1 January 2001 (rather than the popularly celebrated 1 January 2000 ). This is a direct consequence of the absence of a year zero. Had there been a year zero, which might be considered part of the first millennium, then 1 January 2000 would indeed mark 2000 years since the year numbering datum and be the start of the third millennium. Use of Astronomical Year Numbering cannot be used to support year 2000 as the first year of the 3rd millennium because the year zero (which corresponds to 1 BC) is still not considered part of the first millennium AD. Instead it is considered either part of the first millennium BC or not as part of any millennium. Thus the celebrations of the beginning of the New Millennium on 1 January 2000 must remain popular rather than mathematically accurate. Including year 0 in the first positive millennium (0 to 999) while excluding it from the first negative millennium (−1000 to −1) would be inconsistent. But consistency produces unusual results: either year 0 separates the first positive millennium (1 to 1000) from the first negative millennium (−1000 to −1) or it is included in both (−999 to 0 to 999). The consistent solution is that ''any year zero'' must be defined "out of centuries". A Year Zero is a Year Zero. It does not belong to any millennia. With regards to the Decade s like "the 1990s", the year zero, if recognised, is both the first year of the years ''plus'' zeros and the first year of the years ''minus'' 0s. However, the 200th decade ends, like the 20th century and the 2nd millennium: 2000, December 31 at midnight. MEDIA In the movie '' Back To The Future '', Dr. Emmett Brown , the inventor of a time machine, enters the input date of the "birth of Jesus " on a keypad as '' December 25 , 0000'', implying that he uses the astronomical year numbering (and ignoring questions of whether Jesus was actually born on that year or date). The fictitious theologian Franz Bibfeldt 's most famous work relates to the year 0: a 1927 dissertation submission to the University of Worms entitled " The Problem of the Year 0 ". The Zork Timeline included with the comedy game Zork Grand Inquisitor features the year 0 GUE with the annotation: "''As the year zero begins, people feel fairly confident that something big is about to happen.''" (As if the people who lived in the BE period were counting down to 0 even before it happened). NOTES |
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