Common Era

The Common Era (CE), also known as the Current Era and sometimes the Christian Era, is the period beginning with the year 1 onwards. The term is used for a system of reckoning years that is chronologically equivalent to the anno Domini (AD) (Latin for "in the year of Lord") system, but with less overt religious implications. Although common era was a term first used by some Christians in an age when Christianity was the common religion of the West, it is now a term preferred by some as a religiously neutral alternative. It has its equivalents in other languages. For example, Chinese uses its literal translation, g?ngyuán (??), for date notation.

Other calendars in use

Several major calendar systems exist in addition to the Western calendar.

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• The Hebrew calendar dates from the Creation (according to which the year beginning in the northern autumn of 2000 was 5761 AM);
• the Islamic calendar dates from the Hijra in 622 using a lunar year of about 354 days (so the Western year 2000 contains parts of 1420 AH and 1421 AH);
• the Buddhist calendar dates from the birth of the Buddha (making 2000, 2543 under this calendar, but only in Thailand);
• Most Chinese do not assign numbers to the years of the Chinese calendar, but the few that do (expatriate Chinese and Westerners) date from the Yellow Emperor (three different systems are in use, which caused the Chinese years 4698, 4637, or 4697 to begin in early 2000).