What, if any, celebrations or commemorations were done in 1000 AD?

Question

By the 9th century, the Anno Domini system was the most widespread year numbering in medieval Europe. Humans like patterns. Surely people must have thought it significant when "999 AD" became "1000 AD", just like they did at the start of the third millennium. How was this celebrated or commemorated back then?

Answer 1

I am not aware of any large-scale celebrations for that date. You must remember several factors that would have discouraged this:

First, different cultures had different calendars. There is a Jewish calendar, a Muslim calendar, Chinese, Japanese, Mayan, and so on. Even among Europeans, there was a gradual progression of calendars including the Julian, Gregorian, and our modern version. The Church (in Europe) had to intervene at one point because the calendar in use tended to drift, with key holidays falling further from their intended dates every year. With so much confusion before our more standardized era, who could tell what year it truly was?

Second, the poor had a tough enough time maintaining life and limb for themselves and their families. Back in 1,000 AD, there was very little of what we now call "the middle class". The upper crust would have done any celebrating, but I do not recall reading anything about them carrying out such an event. I once watched a wonderful presentation about life in that year, presented on C-Span2 ("Book-TV" on the weekend). The author did note one major change, that year: Iceland declared itself Christian, the only peaceful transition from "pagan" to Christian in history. They had endured economic pressure to convert, yes, and this influenced their choice made at the Ætheling in 1,000 AD. Of course, saying and doing are two different things; the people kept their statues of Thor and Odin, and simply told visitors that they were of the Christian God.

Apologies for the odd transition in font; the system suddenly boosted the text size when I pasted the word "Aethling" in my text.