A friend asked me to tell him more about the tradition of red envelopes. Here is a simple response with some of my personal thoughts. I might add more next year, and the year after next year? Who knows?

 

The tradition of red envelopes is interesting. Usually on the New Year’s Eve, my parents would give my brother and me red envelopes. Then in the new year, every relatives we visited would give us red envelopes at the end of the visit. Because my parents would give red envelopes to other relatives’s children, so they said that the money we received was actually from them, which is basically true. When I was a baby, my parents for sure were taking my red envelopes. But when I was five or six years old, I got to manage them myself. Nowadays, people tend to give very big amount of money in a red envelope. Because of that, I think it makes sense that some parents don’t want the kids to manage their red envelopes.

 

Why do people put a lot of money in red envelopes today? I think it’s because many people are making more money and they want to show their success and kindness by giving money to other people, especially their loved ones. And the poor people just follow that because they receive more money and they don’t want to lose their face by giving less.

 

Also, some people show off their red envelopes on social media. This can put some pressure to other people too.