In the binary times in which we live, it might not surprise anyone that people can’t even agree on when one period of time ends and another begins. The question many are now asking is: When we ring in the new year and welcome 2020, should we also celebrate a new decade?
Confusion over the answer is similar to the uncertainty that hung over watershed events from the millennium to the 2009-2010 changeover.
As Jan. 1, 2020, approaches, it turns out there is a Team Zero and a Team 1 – those who believe the new decade will begin after midnight on the upcoming New Year’s Eve and those who believe the burgeoning celebrations of a new decade (and all the “last decade” retrospectives) are in fact a year early.
In a recent YouGov survey, 64% of Americans said the next decade will begin on Jan. 1, 2020, and end on Dec. 31, 2029. But nearly 20% said they weren’t sure – and slightly fewer people said the next decade won’t start until Jan. 1, 2021.
On this question, many voices of authority are with the minority. They say that because there was no Year Zero when the current era began more than 2,000 years ago, all decades, centuries and millenia begin with Year 1.
“The next decade won’t start until Jan. 1, 2021,” Sandi Duncan, the managing editor of the Farmers’ Almanac, recently told NPR’s Morning Edition.
But others say that because people use the term “decades” to discuss culture and chunks of history, it should run from 0 to 9. And besides, they add, the definition of a decade is just any 10-year span. Where it begins is fairly arbitrary, in their view.