SunCorp

When the lunar new year comes, as it does Sunday, so, too, arrive the lions, dragons and lucky money.

Several but not all Asian cultures celebrate the holiday, which marks the first day of the lunar year and often is known as the Chinese New Year. This year's turning ushers in the Year of the Boar (or pig). Anyone born in the coming lunar year, according to Chinese astrology, will have the sign's traits - including honesty, loyalty and amiability.

The Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Vietnamese - along with the Tibetans and Mongolians - observe Lunar New Year. There are time-honored foods to be eaten, decorations to be hung, ancient rites to be observed.

It is a time for communities around the world to reunite with family and invoke long-held superstitions in hopes of gaining prosperity, luck and longevity.

Lunar New Year grew out of agricultural beginnings. Its arrival heralded the end of winter and the coming of spring. The day often is regarded as a communal birthday, as well.

Families have much to do before the big day arrives. People begin making their way back to the family home. Unfinished business and debts get settled. Around their doors, the Chinese and Taiwanese hang red scrolls - the color of life and vitality - scrawled with hopeful messages. They scurrilously clean house, along with the burial plots of their deceased.

Cleaning is taboo in the first few days of the new year, for fear of sweeping away good luck.

Taiwanese and Chinese families prepare sweets for the Kitchen God, hoping he'll have sweet things to say about them - or that his mouth will be too full to speak - when he reports to the Jade Emperor in heaven.

It's customary to pay your respects to your ancestors. Many families have an altar in their homes for such a purpose. They set bowls of food on the altars as offerings and light incense and burn ceremonial money as a way to communicate with and appease the dead. They ask the spirits to bless and watch over the family in the coming year.

Afterward, all the food is taken down and added to the dinner table. During dinner, conversation is kept cheerful and positive. Nothing negative can be uttered.

Each culture has special dishes they eat at this time of year. For the Chinese and Taiwanese, that includes fish, since the word "fish" in Chinese, "yu," also sounds like the word for "plenty." Dumplings resemble Chinese ingots of money, so they're considered lucky to eat. Shark's fin soup is thought to bring good health.

The Vietnamese eat banh chung, a square block of sticky rice with pork and bean paste inside. The rice cake is wrapped in banana leaves and tied with twine. The leaves stain the outer layer of rice green, representing the Earth.

In Korea, families sit down to eat a special noodle dish with vegetables and meat, and fried mung bean patties known as bindaeduk. Everyone also dines on duggook, a traditional rice cake soup believed to add a year to a person's life.

Korean families often spend New Year's flying kites, spinning tops and playing a traditional board game using four dowels. The sticks are thrown in the air, and the way they fall determines how players can move on a board. The first one around the board wins.

In China and Taiwan, the lunar new year festival lasts 15 days, although typically people return to work after four or five days.

Throughout that time, businesses often call upon lion and dragon dance teams to perform. The mythical creatures are considered auspicious. They often dance to the explosive whirl and pop of firecrackers, since the loud noises are thought to scare away evil spirits.

We at SunCorp wish everyone a very "Happy New Year"