A Definition of the New Year

The new year is a door
By which we reach new fields
Of service for God and fellow man:
A door by which we can explore
Wide spheres of usefulness
Our world to bless,
And reap the sheaves God's word of witness yields.

The new year is a task
Set by the Master of our souls,
A little part of our life's work below:
And so we ask holy wisdom which alone controls
Our labor, teaching what and where to sow:
That the year, at its end,
May show God's glory and man's profit blend.

The new year is a book
With many pages, and as yet all white
On which to write
The history of thought, and deed, and word
In this new group of days.
We pray thee, Lord,
As thou shalt look upon the book,
When written over, may all be to Thy praise.

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

Psalm 90:4

TIME: part 7

By now you probably know that the new millennium began this year - I've been telling you that for the last 3 years. The new century - the new millennium -  occurred this year. The third millennium began the instant of  January 1, 2001. Remember the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. This creation of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick had good photography and a great soundtrack. Admittedly the title 2001 sounds better than 2000, but the title was chosen so the the space odyssey occurred in the 21st century.

Why doesn't the century change on January 1, 2000? The explanation is rather simple, though probably the result of a mistake. A century has 100 consecutive calendar years. In our Gregorian calendar there was no year 0. The year 1 B. C. preceded the year 1 A. D. by only 12 months. The first century started on year one and ran 100 consecutive years until the year 101. Thus, the 21st century and the third millennium will begin on the first day of 2001.

 The year 2000 was a leap year. February had 29 days in the year 2000. Leap year occurs every four years - right! Not exactly. If every single fourth year was a leap year, our calendar would fall out of line with the seasons. This happened before Pope Gregory and his advisers established our "Gregorian Calendar" in the 16th Century. To correct the problem, Pope Gregory decreed that three out of four century years would not be leap years, even though ordinarily they would have been. Only a year divisible by 400 would keep its extra day. Thus the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not have an extra day in February as expected. Last year 2000, was divisible by 400 and therefore kept its extra day.

Sources: The Handy Science Answer Book - Visible Ink

A New Year Quotation

The old year is dead, the new year is born. Humbly, fearfully, we sink on our knees, and slowly, in answer to our prayers, comes back something of the old faith of our childhood, and we rejoice that we are granted one more New Year's day on which to "begin again" -- not in our childish way, with utter disregard of the past, but trusting, patiently, knowing that we must ever carry with us our past, and rejoicing that, with God's help, we may make the future better because of the past. Then, as we rise from our knees, we look bravely forward to to the veiled figure that stands at our threshold; we know only that it is God's new year. May He bless it to us all!

–Golden Rule.