Red-Letter Day : Chinatown is awash in its lucky color to welcome in 4691, the Year of the Rooster. For many Chinese-Americans, it also brings new lessons about adjusting to a multicultural society.

Already backsliding on those New Year’s resolutions? Don’t worry--another chance comes Saturday with the arrival of the lunar new year, often called Chinese New Year.

Jan. 23 will be the first day of the year 4691 on the Chinese lunar calendar, based on the movements of the moon circling Earth. The lunar new year falls on the second new moon of the winter solstice.

“It’s the biggest holiday of the year for Chinese,” said Ella Y. Quan, past president of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.

It’s a New Year’s celebration, with a touch of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fourth of July all rolled into one, said Nancy Yee of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

“According to tradition, we light firecrackers to scare away the bad spirits and clear the way for the good spirits,” Yee said.

Though today’s celebrations are far removed from the agricultural roots of the holiday, Chinese-Americans still value its traditions and emphasis on the family. Children especially look forward to the “lucky money” red envelopes they receive from their elders, Quan said.

Red brings good luck, said Lily Wong, whose Golden Dragon Gifts store in Chinatown is awash in red decorations and tassels bearing New Year’s greetings.

Down the street on Broadway, a large sign on the window of the Wing Hop Fung Ginseng and China Products store wishes passersby Gung Hay Fat Choy (“Congratulations and Prosperity” in Cantonese). Inside, there is more good luck in the form of narcissus plants and orange trees, as well as candy in red boxes and assorted rooster ornaments.

The rooster, after all, is this year’s headline act. According to the Chinese calendar, each year is known by one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. This year, like 1981, 1969 and 1957, is the year of the rooster.

“The rooster wakes up early in the morning, so that means this is a year for people to work hard and have good fortune,” Yee said.

People born in the year of the rooster are deep thinkers and industrious, according to some zodiac interpretations.

For many Chinese-Americans, including those whose businesses were damaged during the spring, the new year also brings new lessons about adjusting to life in a multicultural society and new hopes for cooperation with other ethnic groups, said Deborah Ching, executive director of the Chinatown Service Center.

“We also have to make sure that the great diversity within the Chinese community--in terms of regional origins, dialects and country of origins--doesn’t divide us,” Ching said.

The city’s Vietnamese community is hoping to get a boost from its own New Year’s celebration, its first Tet Festival, which was scheduled for last Saturday in Chinatown, said Hung Q. Tran of the United Vietnamese Community Council.

“The purpose of the festival is to help us maintain our traditional heritage and culture and encourage former detainees and their children,” Tran said, referring to people detained by the Vietnamese government after the Vietnam War.

Korean-Americans have tended to scale back their celebration of the lunar new year, with many opting for their traditional New Year’s family reunions on Jan. 1 instead, said Jae Min Roh, librarian at the Pio Pico branch library in Koreatown. Sales of rice cakes, a traditional Korean New Year’s treat, are slower now than around Jan. 1, said Myung Ja Shin of the Poong Nyun Bakery in Koreatown Plaza.

In Chinatown, however, Saturday marks the beginning of more than a month of festivities, including a fashion show, a beauty pageant, a community carnival, the Golden Dragon parade and the 15th annual Firecracker Run.

Them K. Tran, executive director of the Unified Vietnamese Community Council and a poet, plans a quieter celebration for Tet. Each year, Tran composes a poem for the new year at midnight.

“I’ll write about my brother and sister who are still in Vietnam and my 90-year-old mother who is here and hopes to see Vietnam one last time,” Tran said. “New Year’s is a time to remember our family and homeland.”

Here’s some upcoming lunar new year events:

* Next Sunday: Fashion Show Luncheon, Hyatt Regency Los Angeles, 11: 30 a.m..

* Feb. 6: Miss Los Angeles Chinatown Beauty Pageant, Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, 6 p.m.

* Feb. 12-14: Community Carnival, Castelar School Playground, 850 Yale St., 6 to 11 p.m., Feb. 12; noon to 11 p.m., Feb. 13-14.

* Feb. 13: Golden Dragon Parade, 600-1000 blocks of North Broadway, 2 p.m.

* Feb. 19: Chinese New Year Banquet, Empress Pavilion Restaurant, 988 N. Hill St., 6:30 p.m.

* Feb. 28: 15th annual 5K/10K Firecracker Run, starts at North Broadway and College Street, 8:30 a.m.

Information: (213) 617-0396.