In a message dated 12/25/1999 1:25:27 PM Pacific Standard Time, foxvideo(a)wincom.net writes: Time is relative. The Egyptians had their own calendar, it would be 5XXX now. I rather like the Mayan interlocking circles. Their calendar was more accurate than ours. It is also interesting that it had a start time that preceded their own culture. I suspect that for most of humanity that the stars and the night sky has held a far greater position in ones life than now. We used to live a lot closer to earth's cycles. The seasons and passing of years generate their own calendar. We, in Oregon, are going through a long term cycle of heavier rainfall, more than 18 years long. People seem to forget this is a 'cycle' in the dry years. I wonder what the native American cultures called "EL Nino"? I am sure it was a segment of their calendar. Mediterranean metalsmiths(in Rhodes, 86BC) built a differential geared calculator for calculating the positions of the sun and moon, with eclipses, multiple years and more. Here is a URL which may have appeared on this list before. http://www.math.utsa.edu/ecz/ak.html <A HREF="http://www.math.utsa.edu/ecz/ak.html">Gears from the Greeks</A> I hope this qualifies as "on topic" Many cultures instituted their own calendars. Western civilization has instituted the current calendar, mostly for commercial purposes. Since most people have adopted it, the current calendar would be hard to change. This is the same problem with the millennium change. I like the British Observatory's statement. The idea of a year of celebration sounds like a lot of fun, I hope to do my share. Paxton