Common Era

Common Era (CE; ) is a method used to identify a year. It means "a year in our time" (rather than a year a very long time ago). It is the system for recording dates used almost everywhere around the world today. 

CE is an alternative to the AD system used by Christians, but the numbering is the same: the year  CE is equal to AD  (but usually we just say "the year is "). AD is an abbreviation of the . The CE method is used as an alternative to AD as not everyone is a Christian. However, the name Christian Era () has the same acronym as the name Common Era.

When writing about calendars, an era is span of dates, starting from a particular moment in time. In the case of both CE and AD, that start date is after the date of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Neither system uses a year zero (0); the year before 1 CE was 1 BCE.

 Before Christian Era 
Before Christian Era (BCE) is the system for the years "Before the Christian Era". BCE uses the same numbering as BC (Before Christ). "CE" and "BCE" are placed after the year number. Thus we write "Our year is  CE" or "Artaxerxes III of Persia was born in 425 BCE."

Usage of Christian Era notation began about 1615 among Christians in Europe, and has been growing among non-Christians who desire to be sensitive to Christians. “Common” Era is sometimes used instead, which is short for Common Christian Era.

Related pages
 Calendar
Gregorian calendar
 Jewish calendar
Islamic calendar

Category:Calendars