31st Dec... The most hyped day of a year!

There are Xmas Parties, Diwali and so on ….but it seems that 31st Dec. is the most hyped day in any year. People rush to parties like anything, all the hotels, guest houses, resorts are packed especially in coastal areas, and there is a huge rush for getting the spirits high on whiskey, Rum, Beer, Wine and Champagne...
Everyone will ask each other that what you are doing on New Year Eve, where are you going, etc. It’s like People want an excuse to just run away from all the past year troubles for that one day, when they can let loose themselves without any tension and just plain chill out.
I shifted recently to Chennai and doesn’t have much of a circle here, so on a contradictory note; I celebrated it with bit sober attitude, but couldn’t stop myself having one bottle of beer. But, there are people I know who have celebrated New Year day in a much more sober and spiritual way. I met two persons working in my company, while traveling in the bus one day. Pasha, is a 24 year old guy from Russia and Eva is a 23 year old girl from Macedonia, I hope I have spelled her country properly. Sorry, if I haven’t. They all celebrated New Year in an Ashram without a single drop of alcohol. Its, so tough if you drink generally and you are not drinking on the most hyped day of the year.
I went to but Beer, and I was amazed to see the huge rush in the liquor shop. People were getting over each other to buy spirit like they are hungry from ages. It seemed, so irritating, but can’t blame as I was also part of the mad rush, though surely was not that desperate to buy the Beer like them.
I wanted to visit Pondicherry, with my friends but all the places were booked 1- 15 days in advance. Forget, about Goa, where the places are booked 1 month in Advance. I just want to go into the deeper sense, of 31st Dec. night. Why people flock away from their existing home to celebrate outside, is it the advent of a coming year, a high degree of optimism, or to burn out the bad events of going year or to celebrate the good events of the going year. People may say, Oh... we just want to chill out because everyone is doing so, but there must be some underlying psychology which can be explored. May be, the answer lies in growing consumerism, with all those appealing offers from the Marketers.
But, there is something other than the chill out factor which keeps it the most hyped day.
Can it be explained logically, with something like game theory, or in the marketing sense or may be in the human behavior patterns. Just keeping the decision open....
Hey a last question?
So, how did you celebrate your New Year Eve??????

And Have a great 2007......