BC to AD

This is a very old idea I have had for sometime. I remember I once watched Eddie Izzard and thought, "Ah bastard! He has nicked my joke...that I came up with about ten years after him." But he hadn't. He missed it's real opportunity. That's right, I am lecturing Eddie Izzard, my favourite comedian, in his own game.

This is the point that I'd like to raise. We are all aware, are we not, that Christmas Day falls on the 25th December, the day that with science or not, we typically accept as the day that Jesus was born. Now in the same sort of way, the 1st of January is as everyone also acknowledges, the start of a New Year. A new beginning.

Now, before Jesus was born, the years are known as BC and after his birth, they skip to AD. We all know that. Nobody knows what Ano Domini means but we all know it means after Jesus was born. why use English beforehand and then Latin after? Weird.

So anyway, before Jesus everyone obviously knows it's BC. After Jesus, AD. The problem is that there is a whole week between Jesus being born and a new year starting. So what the hell did they do there?

"Have you heard? Yeah man, we're no longer BC! Jesus has been born! Christ is here!"
"As sweet, so Ano Domini can kick off, yeah?"
"Err...I-I don't know, actually...I mean there's still another week to go..."

So what did they do? In my mind I like to imagine that they called that one week the BAD week. Before AD. And everyone went round thinking they were cool as hell. They were all BAD. Oh yeah.

However I also like to think they were just ABC, After Before Christ, just to confuse the slightly slower kids and also aiding them with their alphabet. A cruel double edge sword.

"Wait a second...after...before...Christ?"
"Yeah."
"Well that makes no sense at all. The B isn't needed."
"No, but then your alphabet wouldn't work. And it would be called an alphaet."
"I am so confused."
"Yes, well maybe you should stick to just chewing the lego."

Another thing that came out of this of course was the fact someone had to decide how to divide up the two years. Let's be honest I doubt people were counting down the days until 'BC' was over. I doubt anyone was even referring to it in that way. So someone's job must have been to split them up.

"What you doing Dad?"
"Oh, I'm just dividing up the years. From before Christ to After Christ."
"Oh okay. Cool. So what have you gone for?"
"Well I thought, 'BC' for 'Before Christ' and then 'AC' for 'After Christ', you see?"
"Why've you written AD then?"
"I haven't written A- ah shit...grab the Latin book."