Ready to ring in a new decade? Experts say not so fast
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 1: Confetti fills the air over revelers during New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square on January 1, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
NEW YORK - Common knowledge seems to suggest— and recent “best of the decade” articles taking over your feed would imply— that the start of the new decade happens January 1, 2020.
But what if we told you that according to experts, the new decade may not technically start until *2021*?
“Feels like a trick question,” one woman in Times Square told FOX 5.
Not a trick, but it is kind of tricky.
“The decade has to start on year 1,” says Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmer’s Almanac. “So literally the next decade should be starting on January 1, 2021. And that decade will end December 31, 2030”
Geiger went to note that “there’s no ‘year 0.’”
“So the very beginning has to be on a ‘1’ year.”
Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History describes it this way:
“Based on the calendar if you want the 201st decade from the year 1 , that doesn’t start until the end of next year.”
Times Square tourists weren’t totally sold.
“That’s nuts,” said a visitor from Australia. “It just makes no sense! Come on, 2020 makes way more sense than 2021.”
But rest assured. The parties will be plenty.
“We did it in 1999, as Prince said, and we are gonna do it [again this year].”