So all the newspapers and TV shows are talking about the "End of the Decade". Or is December 31st at midnight really the end of the decade?

If you start at year one. i.e. the birth of Christ, shouldn't the year start on December 25th. I do not know how January 1st got into the picture. But that is only one part of the question.

Go back to year one. At the end of year one, we had completed one year. So the end of the first decade would be the end of the year 10, would it not? The next decade would have started at the beginning of year 11 and ended in year 20, and so on.

I am sure I do not have to take my readers through the next 2009 years. I think there is a point.

But what about those who say the end of the decade is 2009? That also makes sense since, if we start on the first day of 2000, 10 years later would be the end of '09.

Maybe somewhere in the passage of time, we either lost a year - or gained for that metter.

NEED HELP. PLEASE EXPLAIN.