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`The year 2001 is the Year of the Snake. While the snake is viewed as a clever and cunning animal and often considered `the messenger of Satan` in the West, the beast is believed to transform into a noble dragon after a long period of tribulations in Korea and is also worshiped as a protector of the house based on the belief that every house has a serpent guardian. Lunar New Year`s Eve is called `Jeseok` or `Jeya`. Since it is the day that finishes out a year, various customs are observed to round off the year on this day. Since it was customary to settle all business accounts by the end of the Lunar year, the streets were busy with people hurrying in all directions to collect and pay their bills or debts until late into the night on the last day of the finished year. Also in the tradition of `Suse (defending the year)`, Koreans leave all the lights on in every nook and corner of the house such as the loft, halls, rooms, kitchen, and stay up all night playing the yut game and telling folk and fairy tales to children. People do not sleep on this day because it is said that, if they sleep on New children fell asleep, family members would put powder or white flour on their evebrows and then awaken them up to make fun of their white eyebrows in a happy new year`s family jesting. The Ministry of Information and Communication will be issuing the New Year`s stamps on December 22 to be sold in sheets of both conventional perforated and newly-introduced die-cut versions. The die-cut peel-and-stick stamps, stamps that are separated from one another by die-cutting, are introduced on this New Year`s stamp for the first time in Korea.`