Fifth Grade
Worksheets
What Does B.C. Mean?
A calendar is used to keep track of time. A calendar shows us the days and months of a year. But how do people keep track of all the years we know about? No one knows when the Earth began. We don't have a "Year One" that we can just count up from. When we talk about all the years of history, we need a way to talk about time. When looking at time, we look for great events that took place. One great event that changed the world was the birth of Jesus Christ. Today most people label years before and after that event. We label things that happened before Jesus was born with B.C. This means "before Christ." Some people use the letters B.C.E., meaning "before the Christian era." Years after Jesus was born are labeled with A.D. These letters come from the Latin words "anno Domini." They mean "in the year of the Lord (or in the year of our Lord)." The year .....
