By David Crary
AP National Writer
 NEW
YORK –– For calendar purists, it's a one-in-a-thousand
chance to get things right. For cities whose parties flopped a
year ago, it's a chance for redemption.
Get ready
– or not – for the Real Millennium, as opposed to the
boisterous but mathematically incorrect celebrations that swept
the globe when the Year 2000 arrived.
The number
was nice and neat. But under the widely used Gregorian calendar,
which started with the year 1, only 1,999 years had elapsed since
the start of the first millennium. The third millennium doesn't
begin until this coming New Year's Eve gives way to Jan. 1, 2001.
For most of
the world, the evening will be more or less routine with few extraordinary
festivities. But America's official timekeeper, the U.S. Naval
Observatory, will hold a first-come, first-served open house for
3,000 people at its Washington headquarters to welcome the new
millennium accurately.
"We always
said the Year 2000 was the odometer effect – all those zeros
turning over," said astronomer Steven Dick, the observatory's
official historian. "We get the occasional letter or e-mail
congratulating us for setting the record straight."
The observatory's
party will be relatively sedate – no alcohol allowed. The
mood may be different in Las Vegas and Denver, where civic leaders
vow to make amends for egregiously unsuccessful celebrations a
year ago.
"This
is the real millennium," said Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.
"Everybody else got it wrong, and we've got it right."
Denver officials
were red-faced last year after extensive security measures, imposed
because of previous post-Super Bowl riots, resulted in a near-empty
downtown. One local TV anchorman, after showing spectacular fireworks
and light shows from overseas, mockingly waved a police flashlight
to portray Denver's light show.
This year,
upward of 100,000 people are expected for a fireworks extravaganza
in downtown, capping daylong festivities on Dec. 31.
Las Vegas
is also determined to redeem itself after bombing on national
television last year. The city made news that night not for festivities,
but for a young man falling to his death after climbing a power
pole.
"I was
being interviewed as the new mayor of the entertainment capital
of the world, and I looked out and it was a dud," said Mayor
Oscar Goodman. "Without fireworks, it wasn't New Year's."
Stung by criticism,
Las Vegas intends to explode $500,000 worth of fireworks in 10
minutes this New Year's Eve over the Strip. The police force is
preparing for a crowd of 500,000, double last year's.
In Los Angeles,
ridiculed for its fizzled $6 million bash a year ago, city officials
also promised to do better next time – in Y3K. Five New Year's
Eve events last year drew an estimated 18,700 people, even though
87,000 tickets were given away.
"If anybody
a thousand years from now gets ready to plan it, we'll tell them
what not to do," said City Councilwoman Rita Walters.
In cities
where partying went well a year ago, normalcy has returned. In
New Orleans, for example, a New Year's Eve cruise on the steamboat
Natchez will be $140, down from last year's $200.
In Philadelphia,
party planners were able to dodge the "real millennium"
debate and find another reason to celebrate.
The year 2001
is the undisputed 100th birthday of Philadelphia's City Hall;
there will be a parade, fireworks and a tribute to the 695-room
edifice – the nation's largest municipal building. The 650
couples who wed in a millennium ceremony are invited back for
a first-anniversary toast.
In China,
four cities hungry for tourist dollars are skirmishing over who
sees the earliest sunrise of Jan. 1.
Wenling, on
the coast south of Shanghai, did good business last year with
its claim to have China's first sunrise of 2000, reporting 460,000
visitors and revenues of $36 million.
That prompted
similar claims by nearby Wenzhou and Linhai, plus Huichun in China's
remote northeast. Projections by government astronomers favor
Wenling, but the others are proceeding with preparations.
Elsewhere,
little or no commotion is expected at places that drew throngs
of visitors a year ago to see various "first" sunrises.
Communities in eastern Maine, for example, plan only modest celebrations.
Britain, which
billed itself world millennium headquarters by virtue of having
the prime meridian at Greenwich, has also scaled back its celebration.
Last year, there were fireworks along the Thames, and there was
the Millennium Dome, the government's big idea for celebrating
the new age.
The dome opened
last Dec. 31 with a party attended by Queen Elizabeth II. Since
then, it has struggled to attract visitors, required infusions
of cash and is set to close after this New Year's Eve.
To add to
a sense of anticlimax, London canceled this year's New Year's
Eve fireworks show because of fears the subway system couldn't
handle the crowds.
"I've
organized major events all over the world, but I have never come
against the inability to get things done as I have done for this,"
said Sir Bob Geldof, whose company would have staged the show.
For the Chatham
Islands, the first inhabited land to witness the New Year, frenzied
millennial celebrations are a thing of the past.
"We blew
our budget last year and walked away with a huge headache,"
said Robin Preece, an organizer of the 2000 celebrations on the
islands east of New Zealand. "But we had a lot of fun."
|
