Google celebrates Lunar New Year with Year of the Pig Doodle

Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Google is marking the start of the Lunar New Year with a new Doodle celebrating 2019 as the Year of the Pig.

The Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, is celebrated throughout most of Asia.The Pig is the last animal out of 12 that represent each year in the Chinese zodiac.

Those born in the Year of the pig are linked to being good-natured and honest.

Lunar New Year celebrations consist of families cleaning and decorating their homes to sweep out last year's bad luck, the purchase of new clothes and shoes to make a fresh start, and having meals with family where gifts are exchanged. The color red is used in decorations as it is a symbol of good luck.

Google's home page pays homage to the Year of the Pig and the storytelling art of shadow puppetry with a short video where a hand mimics the shape of a pig's head before transitioning over to a more traditional looking pig.

Google has also released a browser-based game called Shadow Art where users can form one of the twelve zodiac animals using hand gestures in front of a camera.