Even if 2000 isn't really the milestone, it's still a date to remember - like flipping 100,000 miles on your odometer or, as textile engineer Melvin Church suggested, turning 40. You're looking for the best out of life you can achieve. Our calendar, starting at the supposed birth of Jesus Christ, was begun in Roman times and fine-tuned by sages and popes. It isn't exact, or universally acknowledged. But there's a human need to mark the passage of time - and our place in it.
People seek meaning in their lives.
I don't think it's artificial. It's a part of who we are as human beings. The mood and mode of celebration varied from nation to nation and neighborhood to neighborhood. Across Japan, bells in every Buddhist temple gonged 108 times, a traditional plea from weary spirits seeking salvation. The Chinese watched dancers proclaim the superiority of their race and heard their president, Jiang Zemin, promise a Communist-led economic resurgence.