But, wait there's more...
Now let's take a different route...let's use the Astronomical way of tracking years. In Astronomical terms, 1 BC is considered Year 0...so astronomically the transition from BC to AD went -0002 (3 BC), -0001 (2 BC), 0000 (1 BC), 0001 (1 AD), 0002 (2 AD), etc...The ISO 8601 standard of date/time tracking is used in Astronomy.
So, the 1st Century AD started in 1-Jan-0000 (1 BC) and ended 31-Dec-0099 (99 AD)...Awesome!
But, more appropriately, it is sometimes just held that the 1st Century AD started on 1-Jan-1 AD and ended on 31-Dec-99 AD...and the 2nd Century began on 1-Jan-100 and ended on 31-Dec-199...etc. If you consider 1 BC as Year 0 then this would make more sense to you.
This little bit of historical data overload is just a demonstration of where the whole debate stems from. It's really just a little bit subjective...and if you're anything like me...you solved the dilemma by celebrating the new Millennium/Century on 1-1-00 AND 1-1-01...Just to be safe!
But, what does this have to do with decades?...Absolutely nothing!
A decade is defined as a period of 10 years, and in common use can be used as a measure for any 10 year period...but most commonly it is based on the tens digits of the years which you wish to track...ie the roaring 20s (1920-1929)...the 1960s (1960-1969)...etc.
So, although the end of the century and millenia is up to interpretation, there is no real argument when stating that the 90s ended on 31-Dec-1999 and the 00s began on 1-Jan-2000
Therefore there should be no argument that the 00s will end tonight 31-Dec-2009 at 11:59:59...and equally no argument that the new decade (the 10s) will begin at 0:00 on 1-Jan-2010.
Happy New Year and Happy New Decade to Everyone!!!
Peace
G
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