#red envelopes

[cindysuen]

🧧Happy year of the snake! 🐍

My red envelopes “Year of the Meowy Snake“ for Grumpy Bert‘s annual Red Envelope Show at Harman Projects, 210 Rivington Street, New York. 

Opening night reception on Saturday February 1st 6-8pm. Exhibition on view till Saturday February 22nd. Tuesday to Saturday 10am-6pm. Featuring over 100 artists. Come check out the show! 🧧🐍🧧 

[callingfeather]

🧧"Special delivery!"✉️

This was originally for Lunar New Year. In our stories, we don't exactly have the traditional dragons, but their descendants, the flying mail snakes. There's some lore associated with them, but since the mail snake is one of our mascots, it just gives us an excuse to celebrate him twice--for the year of the dragon and the year of the snake!

[newlullabies]

🐰🧧 year of the rabbit 🧧🐰

1. handmade lucky rabbit with pomelo sticker by wondershins

2. handmade red envelopes & sticker sheets by tofubunnyco

3. handmade year of the rabbit red envelopes by BklynPaperCo

4. personalized year of the rabbit red envelopes by HooHooAndMouse

5. handmade year of the rabbit red envelopes by yumodesigns

6. handmade year of the rabbit red envelope, stickers, & art print by Avocadoartt

7. handmade year of the rabbit red envelopes by TheHamAndChaiShop

8. handmade year of the rabbit red envelopes by TheCraftingBun

9. set of 5 year of the rabbit handmade red envelopes by ADuckAmuck

10. handmade year of the rabbit & year of the cat red envelopes by DoudleStudio

[asia-is-my-life]

Art by Old Xian

[necroticboop]

✦ Lady M My Melody Lunar New Year Gift Set [x]

[bryanwongillustrator]

I don’t think I ever posted this one here, but 2 years back I did a couple of red envelope illustrations for the Year of the Rat. There’s very little that’s funnier to me than a list of increasingly stupid nicknames, so I decided to do it as an homage to an imaginary B-tier mobster movie where everyone rats on everyone else.

[magical-dramatic-chaotic]

Superstitions and Celebratory Practices: A crash course on Asian Red Envelope/ Red Packets for Sharing and Receiving Good Luck

If you're Asian and belong to a family who practices traditional Asian ways of celebrating New Year (or if you're a Westerner who loves watching Chinese, Japanese, even Korean dramas), chances are, you're very familiar with the "Red Envelope".

The red envelope (红包) is commonly given out by the elders to children and the "juniors" in the family. One of the red envelope stories I heard about while growing up is that the reason why elders do this is to buy "youthfulness" from the young. Pretty grim if you think about it. 😂😅 But buying youthful energy aside, and for all purposes, the red envelope actually symbolizes vitality, good luck, and well wishes.

Giving out red envelopes is not limited to New Year celebrations; it can also be given to friends and loved ones on other special celebrations such as birthdays and weddings.

Typically, red envelopes contain "fresh" bills. It is considered bad luck (and disrespectful to the receiver) if the bills are crumpled. But sometimes, the red envelope may contain cheque instead of cash. Other times it may contain coins and other lucky charm trinkets. Some modern day establishments and folks even give out gift cards and place them in the red envelopes.

👉 Thanks for sharing, but what if I'm not Asian? Won't it be culturally inappropriate for me to practice giving out presents and little cash tokens in red envelope?

Not at all! I know a French guy who gives out Red envelopes to family friends and his Asian staff at work. Giving out red envelopes, especially to Asian friends and relatives (especially the young ones), is a good way of letting them know that you'd love to extend your "blessings" and well wishes to them! Not to mention there's that "vitality" trade 😉

👉 How much should I put in the envelopes? What if I'm not exactly a millionaire?

It really depends. If you're giving out to kids, putting money below 10 USD is perfectly fine. Actually, if it's just for tradition and rememberance's sake, even around 5 USD is acceptable. Putting in larger sum is more appropriate for weddings, first birthdays, graduations, or when you want to show that you'd like to support them in buying something from their wishlist. Doting grandparents and rich uncles and aunties tend to give out 50 USD and above for the latter reason.

👉Red Envelopes as a Money Charm:

Sometimes, working adults who receive red envelopes from their elders choose to keep it in their wallet as an abundance-manifesting charm. My dad does this. He will not take out the red envelope money in his wallet unless a case of emergency arises. He will simply keep the envelope folded like a normal paper bill. When I asked why he did this, he'd say "it's to make sure that the wallet is never empty". He said having a lucky red envelope in your wallet will help you attract more abundance to fill it.

👉 Can I make my own lucky red envelope as a Money-Attracting Charm?

Sure. I don't see why not. Lately, in some Asian shopping apps, I've been seeing people sell little red envelopes (instead of pouches) containing money charms. Specifically, a folded piece of paper containing an abundance mantra, ancient Chinese coin replicas (you can replace that with loose change/coins of your country's currency), and tiny pieces of crystals/ gemstones associated with attracting business opportunities (such as jade, citrine, garnet, and tiger's eye).

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In case you are non-Asian and is still very concerned about matters of cultural appropriation, feel free to read on ... :)

Edit: This post was meant to give an introduction to a very common custom of "sharing" and "well-wishing". For everyone else unfamiliar with the essence of common Asian auspicious beliefs and celebratory customs, thanks for your concern with regards to cultural appropriation. I will just leave a screen shot of these comments here for anyone who might be worried about whether or not people from other racial backgrounds may apply the beliefs and practices mentioned in this post👇

Oh, and when we say "masters" these people are not necessarily from "professional cultural schools" or "ordained by leaders of religious sectors". Most Feng Shui and "Law of Attraction" Masters come from different backgrounds and earn the title by experience, track record of clients, and application of theoretical as well as traditional aspects of the mentioned beliefs.

That being said, and with the mention of international publishing of topics related to this meant for audiences worldwide, basically anyone interested in the principles of balance, manifestation, and auspicious beliefs & practices may apply it to their lives--as long as they follow through it with sincerity and respect. If you need more "guide materials" related to this, you may either walk into a bookstore's International/ cultural (even "occult") section. Or just google and pick among the thousands of Asian blogs giving their own take on the subject. I hope that clears up any confusion regarding this post and any of my future posts that involve any mention of common practices from my culture involving auspicious beliefs and luck. (Lmao. Take a shot every time I mentioned the word "belief". I can't seem to highlight it enough) 😅👌

[chiuroad]

2023台灣國家教育研究院 / 兔年電子賀卡及紅包繪製