A year to remember. (Image: Electronic Frontier Foundation via Flickr)

The Cambridge Historical Society invites people to say goodbye to “this colossally awful year” and welcome the new one with a cathartic event Saturday at its headquarters.

“Our original plan was to acquire – and then set fire to – a dumpster, but that posed logistical problems,” executive director Marieke Van Damme said.

Instead, the Society is asking people to stop by its Brattle Street home to write down the things they wish to leave behind from 2020, such as a memory, loss or regret. Those will be run through a shredder and recycled.

Then participants can write down on a piece of seeded paper a hope, dream or wish to take into 2021. “Take home your fresh perspective and plant it,” the Society suggested in a press release, asking to be tagged on social media (use #seedlingsofhope) with photos of the plants as they grow.

In addition, the Society is asking for help in building a playlist for the event by sharing songs that sum up 2020 and using #goodriddancemixtape, whether by following the group on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

The event, called “Good Riddance 2020,” is free, and will be a “safe and socially distanced commemoration of a historic year like none other” open to all, the Society said.

It’s been “a tough year for pretty much everyone,” Van Damme said. “We wanted a way to help people process that, commemorate it and let it go.”

“Good Riddance 2020” is 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday (a weather date is 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday) at the Cambridge Historical Society, 159 Brattle St., West Cambridge. Information is here.