It's a date!
Image: in the public domain
Despite the globalisation of nearly every aspect of our lives, from newspaper ownership to junk food brands, there are still some basic things that we seem incapable of standardising, at least in the English-speaking world.
One of these points of difference is how to write dates. In North America, Christmas Day would be written as December 25, 2013 or numerically as 12/25/2013. This is unambiguous even in the Antipodes, because there is no 25th month. However, a Canadian hoping to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday holiday in Melbourne (9 June 2014 or 9/6/2014 in our parlance) might neglect to wave the Union Jack until 6 September, thus missing out on all the royal high jinks. In some continental European countries people sensibly write the month in roman numerals (25.XII.2013) but for us Australians it is probably safer to always spell out the month, and to check the dates carefully when reading letters or other documents from North America. On a point of style, nowadays Australians favour the cardinal form (1 January 2014) over the ordinal (1st January 2014) and don’t bother with a comma.
English-speaking countries share a confusing method of naming the centuries. Technically, the only date starting with 18… that is part of the 18th century is its last year: 1800. The 18th century runs from 1701 to 1800. The Italians get around this by referring to the 1400s, for example, as the quattrocento. In English, one way to avoid confusion is to refer to the 1700s and the 1800s. But even this is not specific enough in every context. If the 1950s covers 1950 to 1959, does the 1900s cover 1900 to 1909, or 1900 to 1999?
Speaking of Christmas and its implications, what is the difference between 76 BCE and 76 BC? Nothing. The terms BCE (before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) are more recent substitutes for BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord). But as the new terms are still based on a religious event that is not common to every faith, it’s not really a common era at all.
People often confuse biennial (occurring every two years) and biannual (occurring twice a year). Sesquicentenary or sesquicentennial means the 150th anniversary. In 2014, for example, those fond of literature will celebrate the sesquicentenary of the birth of A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1864-1941), who brought us the song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ among other works.
But first things first: for those keen to put all the 2014 public holidays into their diaries, a handy listing is available here.
A Happy New Year to all.
