Today Is Not............

[10ClarionSt]

.............the last day of the decade. The last day of the decade is Dec 31st 2020. Why? Because at the end of today, there will only have been 19 years in this century. For it to be the end of the second decade, it would have to be Dec 31st 2020. 1 to 10 = 10 years. 11 to 20 = 10 years. Simples! ;o)
Happy New Decade! Er, 'ang on :o(

[Tilly2]

Thanks for that. I was wondering about it.

[Old_Geezer]

We had the same confusion for some at the end/start of the millennium.
I still reckon we should renumber. Call 1 BC year 0, and shift the prior years to suit.

[ichkeria]

You are strictly speaking incorrect.
There is no set definition of when a decade should start or end.
Most people would say that tomorrow sees the start of the 20s which will be for some a long overdue chance to pigeonhole a particular arbitrary set of ten years.
And so it will on now until the end of the century - whenever that may be :-)
And for most people 2020 is not unreasonably part of the “twenties”
So you’re probably best going with that and relaxing!

[Buenchico]

While your reasonin might have a certain sense of logic to it, 10CS, the definitions of time intervals (whether they be seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades, millennia or whatever are all man-made. When people refer to the '1920s', 1960s' or whatever, most other people would assume that they're including '1920', '1960' or whatever within those decades.

For example, people listening to 'Sounds of the Seventies' on Radio 2 expect Johnnie Walker to include music which was released between 1 January 1970 and 31 December 1979. There would probably be complaints if he refused to play Elvis Presley's 'The Wonder of You' (released in 1970) because he'd followed your logic and assigned it to the previous decade.

[jno]

as people have said - a decade is a 10-year period; you can start it anytime you like. The 2020s start in a couple of hours. (Here, that is. They're already under way in Australia.)

[ummmm]

In Italy, where my friend is from at least, they consider newborn babies to be 1.

[bhg481]

Ummmm - are you sure of that? I remember at school one of the boys came out with that and was told that age in some countries was calculated from the date of conception, hence the discrepancy.

[Cloverjo]

I knew someone would come up with this. Sigh! ;)
I’m with Buenchico.

I bet you were great fun on 31-12-1999 ;)

[Mamyalynne]

I'm decade fluid, yah boo ;-)

[shoota]

I'm just decayed...

[10ClarionSt]

Happy New Year to all. Thanks for the replies. I didn't know about the Italian reasoning. Had thought about most of the others. I'm standing my ground! :o)

[Old_Geezer]

Italians must be saying that they are in their xth year, rather than having completed x years. Does this mean that they get their pension a year earlier ?

[davebro]

Anyway my local Spar shop can't open as the tills won't work - delayed millennium bug? !!!!!

[TonyV]

Thought race horses were always tried to be born in a certain month, can't remember the reason now though.

[davebro]

This effect of season on reproduction results in foals being born in the spring and early summer – when environmental conditions should be best for foal survival. Therefore, the natural breeding season of the horse is from May until August – and this is when highest pregnancy rates are likely to occur.

[10ClarionSt]

January 1st, Tony, is the birthday of every horse, apparently. All Horsey types on here will supply more info, I'm sure.

[davebro]

All thoroughbred horses celebrate their birthday on the same date, January 1 in the Northern hemisphere and August 1 in the Southern hemisphere.

[Togo]

Shergar would have been 42 today.

[woofgang]

I believe that racehorse breeders try to get the foals born as near to jan 1 as possible. Two horses born in the same year will be the same official age and required to enter the same age limited races but a foal born on Jan 1 will have almost a whole 12 months of growth and development over a foal born on Dec 31st

[jno]

why the one-month offset in the southern hemisphere? (Or the northern hemisphere, depending how you look at it.)