What the heck IS a Daruma...

Okay so I've seen them, and realize they're a good luck thing, but I didn't know it was a custom to burn them.  That's interesting....  (credit to wikipedia.org)

Daruma Burning

Burning of the daruma

At the end of the year, all the Daruma are brought back to the temple they were purchased from for a traditional burning ceremony..^[22] This ceremony, called the Daruma Kuyo (だるま供養, daruma kuyo^?) is held once a year usually right after New Years Day. The most renowned of these events are held at the Nishi-Arai Daishi Temple (Tokyo), and the Dairyu-ji Temple (Gifu). At these events, people bring the Daruma figures they had used that year to the temple. After expressing gratitude to them, they turn it over to the temple and buy new ones for the next year. All of the old Daruma figures are burnt together in the temple. After a solemn display of the monks’ entry, reading of the sutras, and blowing of horns, the tens of thousands of figurines are then set aflame.