Friday, January 20, 2012

Chinese New Year 2012 - Ang Pow (Red Packets)

Ang Pow or Hong Bao or Red Packets are a must during Chinese New Year. It is a gift of money placed inside the angpow given by married couples to those not married and also to elders. This being the Year of Dragon, so we can see many dragons pictures on the ang pow.

I saw these cute and beautiful ang pows in Guangzhou during my recent visit there. They were so cheap but gotta buy in bulks. 10 packets (each packets got 6 pieces inside) costs S$2 , yes S$2 for 10 packets - really cheap. Did not buy a lot cause can only use during Year of the dragon hahaha.


Most of the angpows I got free from banks. The above are from DBS Bank. Managed to get only 2 packets - sigh. They looked so beautiful.

Need different ang pows cause different ang pows for different amount of gift of money inside the angpows hahaha.

The closer your relation with the giver the amount will be bigger. We used to say the amount is not important but the receiver truly wishes for bigger amount so they can use it to buy the things they normally wont be able to afford to buy hahaha. When I was a child, going to the movies was a treat only possible during Chinese New Year when I received ang pows. :)

Like the picture on POSB's ang pow, shows family of three generation having steamboat reunion dinner, that's what I am going to have this Sunday for our reunion dinner.

Bought this from Guangzhou too, this angpow is used only for weddings as gifts to the wedding couple or their families. The word double happiness was flanked by the dragon and phoenix.

You can read the origin of the word double happiness from here.

Did not get much although it was super cheap at only CNY1.50 (about S$0.30) for 6 pcs of wedding red packets.

4 comments:

escape said...

i used to receive those too. happy new year to you! i have some singaporean friends coming over to the philippines starting tomorrow.

enjoy the long holidays!

alicesg said...

Thank you Dong Ho. Hope you have a great time with your friends.

Gabriela Delworth - Instructional Designer said...

Happy Chinese New Year!



Gabriela

Aoyama said...

Hai Alice,

Saw your Ang Pau blog already. Hehe. Please keep for me ah!! :-)