And so Hong Kong bids adieu to 2010 - the year in which we stayed out of the path of super typhoons, returned to economic boom times, ate our body weight in frozen yoghurt and finally saw Amina Bokhary put behind bars.
Now it's time for New Year's Eve, also known in some quarters as 'amateur night', and its resulting after-effects on New Year's Day. And perhaps appropriately, celebrating the start of the year on January 1 has pagan origins - Julius Caesar proclaimed it as New Year's Day in 46BC and dedicated it to Janus, the god of beginnings, who had two faces, one looking forward and the other backwards.
However, it was these pagan origins that led the party poopers of the Middle Ages in medieval Europe to abolish the January 1 celebrations and instead mark the new year at a range of times, including Christmas Day, the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25 and Easter Sunday.
January 1 was restored as New Year's Day in the 16th century with the arrival of the Gregorian calendar. Although the reform was almost immediately adopted by most Catholic countries, the calendar was resisted by Protestant states such as Britain, which up to 1752 continued to mark the start of the year in March, as did its American colonies.
Interestingly, the day also marks the Feast of the Circumcision - coming eight days after Christmas, when Christ's blood was spilled for the first time - but the religious overtones have faded into the past and the pagans have reclaimed ownership of the day with annual celebrations worthy of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and intoxication.
Such celebrations have been somewhat subdued in Hong Kong in recent years largely because of the financial meltdown, but this year's vigorous economic recovery and an expected annual GDP increase of 6.5 per cent means the city is back in the mood to party - and there's plenty of ways to welcome 2011 in style tomorrow night.
