Some examples of contemporary hong bao designs.

A red envelope or red packet (Traditional: 紅包; Simplified: 红包; Hanyu Pinyin: hóng bāo) is a monetary gift which is given in Chinese society. The name comes from the red envelope in which the money is contained. It is called Lai Si (also transcribed Lee See) (利是) in Cantonese. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1667x1796, 3087 KB) Summary Scan of some laisees that I have. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1667x1796, 3087 KB) Summary Scan of some laisees that I have. ... Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiÇŽntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiÇŽnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Pinyin (拼音, Pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin used in the... This article is on all of the Yue dialects. ...

Red envelopes are often presented on social and family occasions such as a wedding reception or a holiday such as Chinese New Year (in which context it is also known as yāsuì qián, Chinese: 壓歲錢). They are also the standard form in which cash for political bribes is given. The red color of the packet symbolizes good luck and the amount of money in the packet is often some lucky number (such as a number containing many eights, which sounds similar to the Chinese term for "prosperity"). A wedding reception is a party held after the completion of a marriage ceremony. ... Chinese New Year decoration in London Chinatown Chinese New Year (Chinese: 春節, 春节, ChÅ«njíe; or 農曆新年, 农历新年, Nónglì XÄ«nnián), also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. ... Red is a color at the lowest frequencies of light discernible by the human eye. ... A lucky number is a natural number in a set which is generated by a sieve similar to the Sieve of Eratosthenes that generates the primes. ... 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. ...

During Chinese New Year, a hóng bāo is typically given by the grown-ups and seniors (usually the married) to the visiting children and juniors. It is bestowed on the days of New Year, where the recipient says something auspicious on taking the red envelope.

Gift-giving practices in Chinese and Western society differ in one major respect. In Western society, it is often considered crass to give cash because it lets people know exactly how much was given and it allows the receiver to compare the amount that was given by different people. The theory of gift giving in the West is that it is the "thought that counts" while the actual value of the gift is secondary. Look up Gift in Wiktionary, the free dictionary This page is about gifts in the common English-language sense. ...

In Chinese society, the monetary value of the gift is very important and gifts of red envelopes are socially acceptable precisely because they allow the receiver to accurately measure the strength of a social relationship.

Similar customs also exist in other countries. In Vietnam red envelopes are called lì xi, similar to the Cantonese pronunciation, laisee. In Japan, a monetary gift, called otoshidama, is given to children by their relatives during the New Year period. A white envelope, however, is used instead in Japan and Korea, with the name of the receiver written on its obverse. In Malaysia, ethnic Malays give monetary gifts in green packets inscribed with Islamic motifs. In ancient times, the Japanese New Year (正月 shōgatsu) followed the same lunisolar calendar as the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese New Year (at the beginning of spring). ...

See also

• Chinese social relations
• Chinese marriage