...now we need some other date for the doomsayers among us to get all worked up about. DID YOU KNOW:

The year which most of us are currently calling 2000 is, in fact:

1997 dating from Christ's birth if the 4 BC theory is true;
2753 according to the old Roman calendar;
2749 according to the ancient Babylonian calendar;
6236 according to the first Egyptian calendar;
5760 according to the Jewish calendar;
1420 according to the Moslem calendar;
1378 according to the Persian calendar;
1716 according to the Coptic calendar;
2544 according to the Buddhist calendar;
5119 in the current Great Cycle of the ancient Mayas;
208 according to the calendar of the French Revolution;
The year of the Dragon according to the traditional Chinese calendar;
And all sorts of other things according to other people, both currently alive in various parts of the world, and in history.

The Mayans used a 360-day year and a numerical system based on 20 for their Long Count calendar, and believed that every 13 baktuns (a baktun is 144,000 days) everything would cease to exist and a new universe would begin. The current Great Cycle began in 3114 BC and is due to end on 23 December, 2012. Woo hoo! Now that should rate a few more fireworks than the end of a mere thousand years.

Brunnen-"don't throw away your bottled water and gas cookers yet"G