Well, here we are in 2023 — hope it will be a great year for all of us.
Today is the start of 2023, a common year that will be the 2023rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 23rd year of the 3rd millennium, the 23rd year of the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2020s decade.
You noticed that I referred to 2023 as a “common” year in the Common Era. You don’t hear that nomenclature used too much nowadays, if we define the year 2023 other than just 2023, we usually use 2023 AD.
So to start the year off, let’s talk about these methods used to identify a year…. one method used to identify a year is Common Era or Christian Era (CE) — it means “a year in our time,” not a year a very long time ago. It’s the system for recording dates that is used almost everywhere around the world today.
CE is an alternative to the AD system — a system used by Christians. The numbers are the same — this year is 2023 CE and it’s also AD 2023, but usually we just say that this year is 2023.
AD is an abbreviation of Anno Domino that means “Year of the Lord.” Since people who are not Christian may not be willing to accept that the Lord of any religion should be named when a date is written. This is the reason another way to write a date was needed.
When writing about calendars, an era is a span of dates, starting from a particular moment in time. For both CE and AD, that start date is approximately the date of birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
Before Common Era (BCE) is the system for the years “before the Common Era.” BCE uses the same numbers as BC (Before Christ.) CE and BCE are placed after the year number.
Talking (or writing) about years would seem to be a pretty non-controversial subject, but like just about everything else, in recent years, a persistent criticism has come up leveled against the use of the BCE/CE system, rather that the BC/AD system in dating historical events. Opponents claim the newer system is nothing more than an attempt to “remove Christ from the calendar” in keeping with the “subversive” effects of political correctness. Those opposed to the system claim the use of the BCE/CE system is offensive to Christians who recognize time as dated up to, and away from, the birth of Jesus. They also claim that BCE/CE makes no sense because it refers to exactly the same event as BC/AD. There is one school that opposes the use of the “common era” designation that seem to think that the use of BC/AD is actually stipulated by the Bible and in some way carries biblical authority. But we’ll leave that subject to another blog sometime.
No matter how you designate it, it’s 2023 — the start of a brand new year and new beginnings and another chance to do better. Happy New Year!
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