The lunar new year is upon us. It may be too late (or it may not) to plan to make a brief appearance at council-member Jennifer Kim’s reception in progress right now at her city hall offices, but there’s more to come.

The Austin Vietnamese-American community plans all-day festivities tomorrow at Connally High, with everything from food to dragon dances to exhibitions of the martial arts. For children, it’s free, and for everyone else an extremely reasonable two dollars.

Free for all is tomorrow’s program of the Asian-American Culture Center on Jollyville Road, promising all of the above activities, plus demonstrations of origami and calligraphy.

So for those of us who haven’t made a good start with western calendar 2006 here’s another chance to begin anew and welcome the Year of the Dog.