Is year 2020s the beginning of a new decade?

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Article :

Is year 2020s the beginning of a new decade?

Author: Olusola David, Ayibiowu 

Edition : 35

Year: 1 January 2020

Now that we are in, 2020s everyone is reflecting about the past decade and the new one that awaits. "Best of the decade" lists are everywhere. #10 Year Challenges are all over social media. 

But there's a slight problem.

We might be celebrating a year too early, at least according to some people.

The question of when exactly the current decade ends and the new one begins seems to come up every time the year on the calendar moves from ending in 9 to ending in 0. It came up in 1989. And in 1999. Then again in 2009. And now.

So is January 1, 2020, really the beginning of the decade? Or does it, in fact, begin a year later, on January 1, 2021?

Let's dive in, shall we?

It depends on who you ask

When exactly the decade begins and ends all depends on who you ask.

The US Naval Observatory, the agency that maintains the country's master clock, tackled this question in 1999 as people debated when the new millennium would begin. According to the astronomical dating system through which it measures time, the observatory stated that the new millennium would begin on January 1, 2001.

The 2020s 

The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties" or "two-thousand-and-twenties"; shortened to the '20s[1][2]) is the current decade in parts of the world where the time zone is UTC−07:00 and later. It is part of the Gregorian calendar, and began on 1 January 2020 and will end on 31 December 2029.

“History is clear: because there was no Year Zero, the first decade of the common era (CE or AD) was years 1 to 10, the second decade was years 11 to 20, and the next decade will be years 2021 to 2030,” he said.

“It’s true that ‘the 20s’ — that is, the period 2020 to 2029 — is a decade, i.e., 10 years, but in terms of keeping track of decades from a calendrical (rather than cultural) perspective, the decades are counted as noted above.”

Summary,

However, all this didn’t stop people around the globe from celebrating the year 2000 as a new millennium, century and decade.

That’s because a decade technically just means any 10-year period.

Reference :

Wikipedia 

Edition CNN

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