I.

Introduction

Millennium, period of 1,000 years. The word millennium is derived from the Latin words mille, which means “thousand,” and annus, “years.”

In various Christian doctrines, millennium refers to a 1,000-year period foretold in the Bible’s Book of Revelation, involving the apocalypse (the end of the world) and the reign of Jesus Christ on earth. The concept of the millennium is not only associated with Christian thought, however. Many cultures of the world have similar beliefs about the imminent transformation or end of the world and the creation of an age in which human suffering and violence will be eliminated. Thus, Western scholars commonly use the term millennium to refer generally to any new age of holiness, harmony, and earthly perfection. Similarly, the word millennialism is used to describe beliefs about an imminent apocalypse, the salvation of the world, or the creation of an earthly paradise. Such beliefs have existed throughout history and are still held by millions of people today.

Recently, the year 2000 sparked widespread feelings that something monumental would occur with the flip of the calendar page. Although the year 2000 was a subjective marking of the passage of time, in popular culture it gained enormous symbolic and conceptual power. For many people, it represented a pivotal moment in history, a time to reflect on the past thousand years or imagine a thousand years to come.

For the past several hundred years, people in Western cultures have marked time in terms of 10-year periods (decades) and 100-year periods (centuries). Westerners tend to associate eras with decades and centuries. For example, many Americans think of the 1920s as the Roaring Twenties, and they frequently associate the 1960s with protests and social activism. Many people attach special significance to years that end in a zero, because these years seem to signal a transition from one era to another. A year that ends in triple zeros, then, suggests an even greater change. Thus, the arrival of the year 2000 evoked hope for transformation and the birth of a new age, as well as fears about potential global catastrophes.