For the first time in God knows how long, I spent the New Year awake playing games and cracking jokes. I don’t recall giving too much of a damn about celebrating the new year, but not because I wasn’t appreciative of it. It’s just another day to me, but I can appreciate all of the hope people have when it comes up. That aside, I still don’t think anything of these new year celebrations, and I finally figured out why I don’t care thanks to some THC infused chocolate. Each new year and whatever it is labeled, is based on some random estimated date for the birth of Jesus. No offense to any religions or adherents thereof…but I fully understand if some is taken. Just being honest.
Here’s what I find dumb about the brainiacs that established the calendar and the dictators that forced it on the world. The Anno Domini calendar is based (in theory) on the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus is estimated based on random details stated in the gospels, which were written at least a century after Jesus was crucified. Imagine me writing firsthand details about what it was like to listen to Abraham Lincoln talk…same concept regarding the gospels…I digress. So given this dating system is based on Jesus, his birthday should be Year 1…yet his birth is established as being between 6 BC and 4 BC aka 4 to 6 years before Christ. The current terminology for BC has been updated to BCE…Before Common Era, but initially was before Christ. When you say it out loud it sounds dumb “Jesus Christ was born 6 years before Christ” and that somehow made it past the people grading papers.
What’s in a date?
The Anno Domini dating was developed in year 6033 of the Byzantine calendar, and that was supposedly based on the beginning of Earth as established by the Jewish church. In that year, the first year of the AD calendar, it was considered year 525 AD, and yes, folks were using all kinds of calendars at that point. The AD calendar wasn’t universally accepted until the 1800’s or 1900’s and I can only imagine it was the result of the people in power forcing it upon those without it. Now, since I’m not Jewish or Christian I don’t really adhere to the stuff in their texts as it relates to many things, especially birthdates and the start of the universe so, when exactly is my birthday? Don’t mind me, that’s just a bit of sarcasm, with reality sprinkled on top.
Time is relative, it’s only worth depends upon what we do as it is passing
Albert Einstein
In essence, every date is arbitrary. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need for dating for the advancement of civilization, but at this point in existence, we know the world wasn’t created 7,532 years ago. Dating in that regard was and to a small degree still is about power and dominance. The interesting thing is that there may be a date in our future where the dating scheme changes again. Whether the dating is based on another arbitrary date or some future date that is also arbitrary, it won’t be accurate to the formation of the planet, solar system, Milky Way, or the entirety of the universe. We ring in each new year with parties and celebrations with stupid hats and glasses with the agreed upon year on it and never really think “how exactly is this year 2024”. The answer based on the devout Christian that originally suggested it, we’re actually in 2028 or 2030 already but he kinda dropped the ball. The answer based on the Byzantine calendar is 7532 and if you base it on the Chinese calendar, we’re sitting in year 4515.
All in all I don’t really care about the date or the origins, but somehow, I zeroed in on this thought and had to go into buzzkill mode for y’all. There are plenty of good reasons to celebrate these arbitrary years passing of course, mostly tracking progress or the lack thereof. Regardless of how you choose to celebrate the newest trip around the sun, I think the most important thing is to mark your own progress. No one knows when Jesus was born, and clearly, it’s not even important to society. As long as folks can shoot off fireworks and get drunk, NYE celebrations will continue. In any event, let’s make the best of every rotation while we can.