We call this year 2017. It's supposed to be the 2017th year "of our lord," reckoning from the birth of Jesus, and years before the birth of Jesus are known as "BC" (before Christ). The terms "common era" (CE) and "before common era") have been adopted as secular naming conventions, but really they're still based on the Jesus myth.
Other cultures have their own year systems. In Japan, for example, it's now year 29 of the Heisei emperor era. When Heisei dies, they'll start from Year 1 again. They use the Western years for convenience, but on official documents only the emperor years are legal. There are people alive who were born in four different emperor eras, so it's all pretty confusing. Islamic countries have their own crazy calendar based on a 355-day year.
So it seems like all year systems, as well as the days of the weeks, and some of the month names have religious roots.
Is there an alternative starting point for reckoning years? Is there another (non-religious) event in 1 CE that could be used as the basis for a secular year system?
Written on Woden's Day, 3rd day of the month of Maia, in the year of our lord 2017.
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