Calendar Changes??

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a theatre class listening to a lecture about the different types of theatre in different periods of time. The lecture was dull as usual but there was something he said that made my ears perk up a little bit.

"The history of Eastern theatre is traced back to 1000 BCE with dramas of ancient Indian theatre."

I raised my hand. "Professor...what's BCE?"

"Before the Common Era."

"Did that replace B.C.?"

"I don't know."

The professor resumed his lecture. I look at the person sitting next to me and she shrugs her shoulders. When did this change happen? How long was this change in effect? It might even be a personal use of terminology made by the professor. I decided to do a little bit more research into this.

I wiki'ed the hell out of time periods and calendars. I discovered CE meant "common era" and BCE meant "before common era." These terms have been here even before I was born. I naturally thought it was a replacement term that atheists wanted to use, but it went a little deeper than that. Below is a small sample I've cut from Wikipedia about its origin:

The year numbering system for the Common Era was devised by the monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year 525 to replace the Diocletian years, because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.[15] He attempted to number years from an event he referred to as the Incarnation of Jesus[15] although scholars today generally believe that Jesus was born before AD 1.[16][17] Dionysius labeled the column of the Easter table in which he introduced the new era "Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi"[18] Numbering years in this manner became more widespread with its usage by Bede in England in 731. Bede also introduced the practice of dating years before the supposed year of birth[19] of Jesus, and the practice of not using a year zero.[20] In 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius.[21]

Because I've been to Christian private schools for the majority of my life, I thought that would be the reason why I have never heard about those new terms. It's like 'BC' and 'AD' were hard-wired in my brain. Anyway, hope you guys learned something new. If this was common sense...cut me some slack. :)