Two rolls of millennium

The whole world was preparing for the meeting of the third millennium. In Warsaw, on the 42nd floor of the Palace of Culture, a millennium clock has been installed, which will go off at midnight on January 1, 2001. (Photo: AP )

An old lady I know asks: “Why is everyone suddenly talking about linoleum? All you hear is linoleum, linoleum...” - “Maybe millennium?” - “Maybe so, but I don’t understand this at all.” (The same woman was anxiously interested in August 1991: “What happened? Everyone is saying - punch, punch...” - “Yes, not a punch, but a putsch.” - “Well, yes, so what kind of punch?”)

It looks like she was right in both cases. However, let historians judge from their own distance what turned out to be. We are still deep into the millennium. Even in two.

Actually, this is the most remarkable thing: humanity managed to arrange a meeting of the millennium twice.

First, they deceived us by saying that a new era would break out on January 1, 2000, and even by bringing dubious but effective arguments. Then, not formally, but actually they asked for forgiveness (called “I apologize with a show off”) and proposed to celebrate the advent of the millennium once again, for real, on January 1, 2001.

Who they are who “deceived”, “asked”, “offered” is more or less clear. This is us. Why are we doing this - the answer to the question is more extensive.


Santa Claus opens the Christmas market in the Dutch quarter of the German city of Potsdam. (Photo: AP )

Firstly, the thirst for a holiday. If you think about it, there are no other worries. Everything is clear with work: the path is well-trodden, the deadlines are known, the salary, if given, does not promise miracles. In the average case, there are no surprises with the family. There is room for creative imagination only in the organization of leisure, entertainment, and holidays. So we fantasized about two celebrations of one New Year.

Hence, secondly: the sophisticated ingenuity of humanity and especially its vanguard, workers in the leisure and advertising industries. Here, such mechanisms of persuasion have been developed that, if they wanted, we would walk these millennia every month.

Adjacent here - thirdly. The wear and tear of religiosity and morality, which previously might not have allowed Scripture to be treated so unceremoniously. Christmas only happened once, after all.

Fourth, there are resources for holidays and super holidays. In the prosperous world - material and technical, in another - ideological, fueled by this example. It’s not that Blagoveshchensk teachers suddenly have money, but on December 31, 2000, they too will sit under the double Christmas tree. Consciousness is always ahead of being, in Blagoveshchensk too. Perm lives with the idea that it will be the first of the large European cities to enter the third millennium - all in order to remind: Europe begins in Perm. (It could also be the other way around: Europe ends in Perm - but I’m reluctant to talk about it.)

The confluence of all circumstances included (and we included) the event in the category of social orders. Millennium is purchased like linoleum: “A roll, please. No, you know, perhaps two are better.”

They twist it. They wrap it up. But they take it somehow sluggishly. Yes, and they offer it coolly. Tired.


In Singapore, a huge "Snow" head was erected to celebrate the millennium. (Photo: AP )

Already on the eve of the first millennium there was a warning bell. In Paris, which for centuries was considered the capital of the world and therefore prepared for the change of millennium with especially inspiration, a hurricane occurred. Oak trees that survived the revolution fell in the parks. Garlands of illumination were torn off from bridges over the Seine. Hint: stay home. They didn’t believe it and had a blast. But there is clearly not enough energy for a second full-fledged party. We, of course, will grit our teeth and give everything that is due drop by drop for the sake of the holiday, but it is already clear how much thinner and thinner the second roll is.

"Did you ask for two rolls of millennium?" - “No, perhaps, just one. The second one is still better than linoleum - so that, you know, it’s cheerful and doesn’t stain.”

A valuable lesson: modern man is equipped with diverse and powerful equipment, but, as before, he is essentially vulnerable and weak, having not improved at all emotionally, mentally, and intellectually over the centuries. We can’t even stand two big holidays in a row, which we ourselves invented and appointed. It’s comforting: if you don’t have enough strength for joy, maybe you don’t have enough strength for villainy?


The Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees begins to be decorated with illumination at the end of November. (Photo: AP )