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published on 01/01/2001
HAPPY NEW YEAR
By
sigmtn.com staff writer
It is January 2001. The 3rd millennium begins on January 1st. The reason the new millennium begins this year (and not last year like a lot of people thought) is because there was no year 0. The calendar jumps from the Year 1 BC to Year 1 AD. So the first century begins with Year 1 and goes to Year 100 ? a hundred years. By the same reasoning, the 1st millennium would start at 1001 and go through 2000. And so begins the 3rd millennium!
Celebrating the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. The first time we know that people celebrated the New Year was in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. Today, people try to spend the first few minutes of the New Year with family and friends. Some people have parties to ring in the New Year. Sometimes we hear or see fireworks. On New Year?s Day people go to parades, football games and eat special foods like black-eyed peas and cabbage for good luck.
Another important tradition in January is to take time to make New Year?s resolutions. ?Resolutions? is a big word. It means to try hard to do things differently than you?ve been doing them. Adults might try to stop doing something like over-eating or start doing something like exercise regularly. Kids make lists like keeping your bedroom clean, helping with chores, or try not to fight with little brothers and sisters. Even if you don?t do all the things you listed, that?s okay. It?s making the list that is important because it is making you rethink how you do things and the first of any year is a good time to do that!
Let?s talk about TIME
A long, long TIME ago people used the sun, moon, planets, and stars to tell TIME. As they moved across the sky, people of ancient civilizations were able to keep up with the seasons, months, and years. About 3500 BC, the OBELISKS were built to tell TIME, using shadows that fell on the dials. A Dutch scientist, Christian Huysens, made the first pendulum clock in 1656. Next came quartz crystal clocks. They were better because they didn?t have any gears to disturb the rhythm. Although these clocks were excellent, their performance was surpassed by the atomic clock. The United States official timekeeper is the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington DC. To learn more about the atomic clock, the official source of time, and the U.S. Naval Observatory, go to www.usno.navy.mil What kind of clocks do you have in your house? Does it have a ?face? with hands that move ? hour, minute, and second? Or does it have a digital face with just the numbers printed that change as time goes by? What about your watch? Have you ever looked at the clock and thought that it was stopped ? that TIME was standing still? Sometimes we don?t even think about TIME. The younger you are, the less you think about how fast it?s moving. But your parents and grandparents think TIME is very important. It seems to go way too fast for them! So if they seem in a hurry; be patient with them. Remember to be grateful for the TIME you have. Use it wisely. Be generous and giving with your TIME ? it is very precious!
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