New here, not to Satanism.

Pardon me if this has been posted before. I'm not looking to get my head bit off, I'm just a bit misinformed.

I was checking the COS site today, and noticed (not for the first time) that it states this year is XXXIV (39). I thought, or was lead to believe, this year was XXXVIII (38). I understand Walpurgisnacht is in eleven days but I still feel the need for a clarification...elaboration please?

By your wording, I presume you mean that you believe the New Year to fall on Walpurgisnacht, probably as that is the date of Magus LaVey's founding of the Church of Satan; hence the question of the year in relation to that date.

However, this is not the case. The New Year, Anno Satanis, begins with the New Year, Common Era. In other words, it changes with the usual year change. Walpurgisnacht is a separate celebration which does hold the significance of being the date of founding of the Church.

Yes, you are correct, I was misinformed about Walpurgisnacht. Although, that still did not answer my question about the year. 38 or 39? The COS site states it is 39. My math skills tell me otherwise...39 years ago would be 1965, and the COS was founded in 66??

1966 was the Year One A.S. Count up from there, it comes out to Year 39 A.S.

I'm actually surprised at how many people have since contacted me to ask how I figured that the Year, Anno Satanis, is presently 39.

The mistake is most often:

2004 - 1966 = 38

The problem with this is that it is not accounting for 1966 being counted as 1, and thus the result is one short.

To better illustrate this:

We obtain the value of the first Year A.S. by the following equation:

1966 - 1965 = 1

1 is the value (in A.S.) assigned to 1966, and this equation converts from Year C.E. to Year A.S. accurately. To subtract 1966 instead would yield a result of zero, which there is no year with that value in A.S. (or in Year C.E. for that matter).

Now, apply the same equation to the present year:

2004 - 1965 = 39

This converts the present Year C.E. to the present Year A.S. by the exact same formula used to calculate the first Year A.S., the founding of the Church of Satan. Hence, we are presently in Year 39 A.S., or XXXIX A.S.

Hopefully this has thoroughly clarified the reasoning behind why the Church of Satan's website correctly designated this XXXIX A.S., and not XXXVIII A.S.