FAMILIES will eat their way to good luck this Saturday as Chinese New Year's Eve is celebrated in more than 500 Melbourne restaurants.

The evening of the new moon is a time for togetherness, and restaurants book out fast. Banquet menus will be designed to bring happiness, health, wealth and wisdom, as the symbolic significance of each dish is carefully considered.

Colour is crucial. Shark Fin restaurant manager Martin Chan says suckling pig is on almost every New Year menu - not because this happens to be the Chinese Year of the Boar, but because its cooked skin is red.

Rich and intense, red is regarded as auspicious; it offers health and happiness and chases away evil spirits. Throw in some unruly puppet lions with the shatter and clamour of fireworks and cymbals and wandering spirits are incapacitated.

Gold and orange symbolise wealth and happiness, so oranges and mandarins are usually table fixtures. At Red Emperor at Southgate, scallops with crabmeat sauce will be the gold-hued emblems.

"The crab meat will combine with crab roe like a golden or orange colour to signify a pile of gold coins or nuggets," says co-owner Raymond Cheung.

Uncut noodles and peanuts represent longevity, and egg rolls bring wealth. Whole chickens or round items such as buns and lychee nuts represent togetherness and close family ties. Sweet things such as sticky rice cake symbolise a rich life and layers of abundance.

Another way to chose a New Year's dish is to consider how its name sounds in Chinese. Cheung says shark fin soup means "good opportunities for business". Martin Chan uses more poetic licence: "The shark fin is like the eagle spreading its wing, so you expand your business."

Melbourne China Town president Danny Doon says pig trotters with lettuce or seaweed ensure that "everything goes smoothly".

Most restaurants will include a soup with dried oysters and black seaweed or "black moss", in a dish called Fat choi ho si."Fat choi means "making a lot of money", explains Cheung, "and ho si means good business. If you open your doors, lots of customers will come in."

Another specialty is crayfish, or "long ha", which means dragon prawn. This dish, typically done with ginger and shallots, is for a strong, healthy, energetic spirit.

Steamed live fish is one dish that should not be finished. Its Chinese name means "leftovers", which is no reference to tomorrow night's dinner, but a wish for prosperity. "May you have abundant fortune with plenty to spare!"

If all else fails, you can always stand in the path of Melbourne's Dai Loong Dragon when it is unleashed next Sunday. Carried by more than 200 people up Little Bourke Street, the creature welcomes New Year's Day with abundant blessings of good fortune for all.

"Gung hei fat choi!" or "Congratulations and be prosperous!"