Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year or sometimes called the Lunar New Year. 2008 is the year of the Rat.
My wife, who teaches middle school in Palo Alto, and I were in San Francisco this past weekend. We ended up in Chinatown on a mission. We were looking for the popular red envelopes that are usually given out during the various Chinese new year celebrations. Traditionally, the red packets are handed out to children with money inside (usually $8.00). She wanted to give each of her students a red packet with a coupon inside that allowed each student to turn in one homework assignment late.
We started looking for the red packets at several of the Chinatown banks. However, they all had run out. Fortunately, we found a vendor at the street fair and were able to purchase over 100. This morning my wife distributed them to the kids. She thinks they liked them, but she isn’t sure they liked them for the cultural significance or because they can be late on a homework assignment. Either which way, she thinks the kids learned a little something about Chinese culture and history.
Gung hay fat choy!
1 response so far ↓
1 Sabrina // Feb 12, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Normally you can find all kind of red envelopes in Chinese supermarket such as Marina or Ranch 99 a month before the Chinese New Year. If your wife did explain about the meaning of the red envelopes in relationship with Chinese New Year then i think the kids would learn a little bit about the culture and still happy they get a chance to turn homework late. I do appreciate her effort.
By the way, Gung hay fat choy is Cantonese which is one type of Chinese language that people from Hong Kong and Guandong speaks. We say Gong Hsi Fa Tsai in Mandarin which is official language in Taiwan and China.
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