No, this isn't a Viagra ad, you perverts!
Vicki and I were talking this morning about the 'trick' that I've seen used a few times to stretch out a special anniversary event atmosphere. It takes advantage of the occasionally-confusing way that we talk about time (which was at the core of why so many people misinterpreted the 21st century as starting at Jan 1st, 2000, rather than the correct Jan 1st, 2001). A simple example will probably explain this best.
Suppose you were part of an organization that had originally formed way back on August 26th, 1909 and today you realized your 100th anniversary was not too far off. Assuming that there was some reason why you wanted to celebrate that milestone as long as possible, you could do the following: on August 26th, 2008 you'd begin your "100th Year Celebration" because you'd be starting your 100th year on that date. This doesn't make sense to some people because they'd say that that was happening a year early, but of course all you have to do is talk about "your 1st year" to see how it works. Your 1st year (of anything) begins when you start up, and ends just before your 1st anniversary, at which point your 2nd year begins. So therefore your imaginary organization would start its "100th Year Celebration" on August 26th, 2008 and carry on for a full year. On August 26th, 2009, you'd change the banner/buttons/slogan to be "Celebrating 100 Years!" because now you've been around for that long. This gives you a whole 'nother year to promote your milestone.
I think it was Stratford Festival that I first saw employ this, although I could be wrong. It caught my eye and, because I find such things infinitely interesting, it stuck with me (what they'd done, just not necessarily who did it!)
Ain't numbers and the English language fun?
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