AS the new Millennium hype gathers momentum, I am amazed as to why the celebration has been hijacked by certain people and brought forward 12 months prior to the official transitional time which, as any junior academic will tell you, is December 31, 2000 to January 1, 2001.

I note you have only had two letters criticising this anomaly.

Blackburn with Darwen Council have begun a countdown which will pre-empt the celebration 12 months in advance. Perhaps this hasty misguided notion came from the same discreditable think tank as the political correctness farce.

I'm surprised that the Lancashire Evening Telegraph condones this travesty by publishing its own erroneous countdown. I wonder which year the various institutions - the church, schools, scouts, masonic lodges, astrologers, etc - will acknowledge. Will one town differ from another nationwide and other countries? Will the new Millennium not be celebrated in unison?

As the last decade of the century began, tentative preparations began to emerge as to how to celebrate the transitional centenary and which venue to reserve for it.

It was also then defined in which land in the world the first sunrise of the new Millennium would be seen - an island off Australia; and in the British Isles, a location on the east coast.

But almost at the eleventh hour, for a reason known only to themselves, some eager beavers are jumping the gun, creating confusion and a double whammy for pubs, caterers and souvenir trade etc. But which year's mementos will be deemed authentic - 2000 or 2001?

J A MARSDEN, Scarborough Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.