When the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve, we not only left 2019 behind, but we also left a decade behind. Here are a couple of familiar references to 2020 from our society and culture.

1. Vision

The most obvious reference to 2020 relates to vision. Have you ever heard someone say they have 20/20 vision? Notice the way it is written. If you have 20/20 vision, you can see clearly at a distance of 20 feet away.

2. ABC Television News Magazine

Another reference to 20/20 is the television news magazine that has been broadcast on ABC since June 6th, 1978. Since the name of the program was inspired by the visual concept, it is written the same way.

January 1st, 2020, marked the beginning of three distinct time periods. It was a new day, a new year, and a new decade.

1. A New Day

New Year’s Day 2020 followed the last day of 2019, which was known as New Year’s Eve. A day is a 24-hour period.

2. A New Year

This new year is a leap year with 366 days. That means there is an extra day in February, the shortest month. Even with the extra day, February still remains the shortest month of the year with 29 days. Every other month has either 30 or 31 days.

People born on February 29th will be able to celebrate on their actual birthday this year. That’s something they have not done since 2016 and will not be able to do again until 2024 since a leap year occurs only once every four years. Those born on February 29th are known as leaplings or leapers. Have you noticed that presidential elections are held only in leap years?

3. A New Decade

A decade is a period of ten years. This is the first year of the decade known as the 2020s. If you keep living, you will have plenty of opportunities to make positive changes in your lives. It is better to begin now instead of waiting and trying to catch up later.

2020 is like 1616, 1717, 1818, and 1919, because the first two digits match the second two digits. This happens only once in a century, which is a hundred years.

Being alive in 2020 is special because that is the only year you are likely to live through wherein the first two digits will match the second two digits. The next year that follows this pattern is 2121. A person alive now would have to be at least 101 to see that year. While that is possible, it is unlikely.

Expect to have the opportunity to celebrate on more convenient dates in 2020. The extra day causes the calendar to shift, resulting in more weekend holidays than normal. This will give people more time to celebrate on the weekends instead of during the week when they have to go to work or to school the next day.

If you take a look at your 2020 calendar, you will see that many of the dates of official and unofficial holidays are either on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday. In most cases, workers and students will have a long weekend. Very few holidays occur during the week in 2020.

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on Monday, January 20th.
• Valentine’s Day is on Friday, February 14th.
• President’s Day is on Monday, February 17th.
• Independence Day is on Saturday, July 4th.
• Labor Day is celebrated on Monday, September 7th.
• Columbus Day is on Monday, October 12th.
• Halloween is on Saturday, October 31th.
• Christmas Day is on Friday, December 25th.
• New Year’s Day is on Friday, January 1st, 2021.

When a holiday falls on a day when employees are already off, they either get the day before the holiday or the day after the holiday off instead.

The list above does not include holidays and celebrations that are always on Sundays, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Easter. Also, Thanksgiving is always on the last Thursday in November.

The Roman numeral for 2020 is MMXX. Some people don’t understand Roman numerals. Each letter stands for a number. Once you learn what the letters stand for, you will know how to add up the numbers to get the correct total.

For instance, in MMXX, the M stands for one thousand. Therefore MM is two thousand. X stands for 10. Therefore, XX stands for 20. When all the numbers are added together, the result is 2020.

The years of Super Bowl Games are written in Roman numerals. For instance, the game for 2020 is played on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020, or 2/2/2020. That’s a lot of 2s. It will be the 54th year for the game. Therefore, it is written LIV. L stands for 50. IV is 4 because V is five and 1 subtracted from 5 is four.