If you believe all the predictions, 2009 is going to be a nasty year and not worth celebrating. Nevertheless, some people are preparing to see in the new year not once but twice.
In Scandinavia, you can have two new year parties just by taking a five-minute walk across a bridge between Finland and Sweden. In Florida, they are offering a free trolley service between time zones to prolong the festivities.
But you don't have to travel anywhere in Mongolia. There's one party for new year in the Gregorian calendar, and another for the lunar calendar.
The food and drink website Chow is also suggesting staying put – but your room could start spinning if you take its advice and enjoy a traditional drink for every time zone. That drinking odyssey ends with a blood orange juice and tequila in Samoa, if you get that far.
In Sydney, people have been gathering for the celebrations at the city's harbour, with Rog42 preparing to Live Vlog the fireworks.
And it's all one long party in Twitterland, as new year-related themes claim the microblogging site's top three trending topics. "The date line is travelling around the world at 1600km/h, being followed by cheers, fireworks and drunken retards," tweets Lance from New Zealand.
In Britain, freezing temperatures and money worries have brought predictions of a New Year's Eve stay-away. The London mayor, Boris Johnson, is so full of foreboding that he is quoting the deranged Vietnam commander Colonel Kilgore from Apocalypse Now – the character who loved the smell of napalm in the morning.
"Some day captain, this war is going to end." As for this year, we'll have to wait a second longer for it all to end.
Is the end of 2008 and the start of 2009 worth celebrating? And if you think it is, how will you be partying?
