Red packet

Happy Lunar New Year - Gong Xi Fa Cai - Kung Hei Fat Choy -
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

Today is the start of the Lunar Year of the Pig and lots of red packets or hong bao or ang pau will be given. What you're seeing here is a close-up of one of those red envelopes, decorated with the Chinese character 福 or Fu , which means luck or good fortune. There's an image with more of these hong bao envelopes and a Chinese New Year card in the extras. They're big enough to put bills in them, there should be bills in pairs in them with an even total and preferably clean new bills, but never four bills or anything totalling four because the word for four sounds like death. They're given to your own children and to others' children, to unwed young adults, to those who don't earn money ,  to people who work for you in and around the house. It's a way to wish them good fortune and prosperity in the new year. The colour red is also considered lucky, hence the red packets. I've got a whole collection of them as every year banks and other companies will give packets of (empty) hong bao to their customers, for them to fill for their children and other dependants :-)

On Lunar New Year's Day 2019 for Tiny Tuesday with thanks to wrperry for hosting this month.


Thanks very much for your kind comments and stars for yesterday's tiny Pig charm.