Greece will mark the first day of the third millennium just as it did the dawn of the 20th century with a party at Sounion's Temple of Poseidon: the monument where the poet Byron took delicious delight in carving his name.
It will, organisers say, be a bash to remember. For unlike in 1901, Greece is in optimistic mood.
Be it within the European Union or the neighbouring Balkans, where Athens appears set to assume a leading role, the signs look good. Almost suspiciously good, say those Greeks more used to seeing themselves as underdogs in a rich-man's club. Never before have the country's political, economic and social prospects been viewed, both at home and abroad, with such confidence.
After a century of tumult and turmoil following two Balkan wars, civil conflict, brutal Nazi occupation and a seven-year military dictatorship, the scars have finally healed. Greece wants peace even if that means compromising with Turkey, its hated former Ottoman overlord.
As Athens enjoys a rare bout of political stability and one of Europe's fastest growth rates - a phenomenon spurred in part by preparations for the 2004 summer Olympics in the capital - there is, for once, hope in the future.
"The Olympic Games will undoubtedly raise the profile of the country," the Interior Minister Vasso Papandreou told The Irish Times. "They are tantamount to an international vote of confidence in Greece. After years of economic austerity the Greeks are seeing their sacrifices pay off."
Analysts say the new confidence is unlikely to wane no matter who is in power.
In a dramatic departure from their divisive policies of the past, both the left and right have decided to irreversibly hook the nation's star to the European Union. The decades ahead will not be dominated by debate over the Orient and the Occident, and whether the Greeks' hearts lies in one and their minds in the other.
After years of battling an identity crisis borne of Greece's unique position at the east-west crossroads, Athens has made up its mind to enter the new era as a European country in the Balkans and not as a tiny Balkan country in Europe. By drawing on its Byzantine heritage and the Orthodox religion it shares with many of its neighbours, Greece hopes to become an economic bridge to the east. With more EU aid and domestic capital being pumped into planned infrastructure links in the coming years, it plans to fortify its position as a "geographical lynchpin".
Politicians say enhanced trans-European networks will not only allow the country to overcome its geographic isolation from the rest of the EU (with which it shares no borders) - they will also push the drive to extend Greece's economic reach into a Balkan marketplace of some 80 million people - eight times' its own population.
A successful role in the Balkans will not only reap economic benefits but ultimately enhance Athens' position within the EU. Improved relations with Turkey, Greece's longstanding rival to the east, will also hog the headlines as both countries move ahead with deals that are likely to see the two neighbours becoming increasingly interdependent, not least in the areas of tourism and culture.
Greek hopes of catching up with their much richer Western partners have already grown with the vast programme of EU-funded infrastructure works currently underway. They will almost certainly increase when Athens joins the much-cherished euro zone - a feat it aspires to achieve in two years' time.
Construction of facilities for the Olympic Games will create some 120,000 jobs as of 2001, Olympic officials say. In Athens alone there are plans to press ahead with 28 projects including the building of a massive Olympic village, ring road and an array of luxury hotels.
By 2004 the city also hopes to have linked up all of its ancient sites - from the 5th century BC Acropolis to Plato's academy - into a vast archaeological park.
In the years ahead Greece expects to see many of its immigrants return home. Like Ireland, it has fast become a magnet for migrants from Eastern Europe and other developing countries seeking a better life. The culture mix looks set to change the ethnic make-up of a nation that not so long ago prided itself as the last homogenous race in Europe.
Helena Smith can be reached at helenasmith@interagora.gr