新年快樂,  恭禧發財! 紅包拿來!

“happy new year, be rich and prosperous! Give me the red envelope!”
Happy year of the dragon.

Do you know what would be better than one dragon? 2 dragons!

Anyone know this reference?

Some may be familiar with Chinese New Year and the traditions entailed. Actually some people do not even realize there was even a Chinese New Year. There are multiple different new years depending on the culture which I definitely am not familiar with. A quick google search will bring up many results. The day of the Chinese New Year always changes relative to the roman calender we all use, since the Chinese New Year follows the Lunar Calender. My parents always seem to know when it is (probably because they seem to always have a lunar calender), but with the help of google, I can find that it is actually: Monday, January 23, 2012. [If you havent noticed yet, I am a huge fan of google]

The most familiar with the Chinese New Year is what my family mainly followed. Aside from that my knowledge is limited. What I do know is that every time this year, I could count on one thing:  Getting the “Hong Bao” [紅包], or red envelope. It has been Chinese tradition to hand out red envelopes of money to children during the new year. Something to do with good fortune and prosperity.

From what I understood kids get the envelopes, and they are usually given by parents or other adults. Criteria would be once you have your own kids, you no longer get the envelopes, and if you have kids, you are expected to give out envelopes. This is just from what I gathered, and I don’t think is by far any credence to this. There probably also isn’t any hard fast rules at all. A mighty google search brings up some history behind this blessed envelope. That link will give you a more adequate explanation.

So what we had to do was get on our knees and in a sense beg/kowtow to our parents and exclaim: “恭禧發財! 紅包拿來!” or “be rich and prosperous! Give me the red envelope!”

So to the point, can I still expect to receive these red treasures? Am I supposed to be giving them out now?

I guess if you are within the criteria (younger generation) and kowtow to me and exclaim the magic words (in Chinese), you may find yourself the owner of a red envelope.

for proper pronunciation you can check out google translate.