mindless ramblings

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone, or rather Happy Lunar New Year to the politically correct out there. I hope everyone has had a good time meeting up with relatives/friends/aquaintances and having a ball of a time! It’s a pity CNY here isn’t a holiday, a 2 day holiday in the post-Christmas rainy gloom of Vancouver is most welcome. It has been completely grey today, I couldn’t even spot the sun from behind the clouds. Moreover, Vancouver is also missing some foods that Singaporeans and Malaysians enjoy for the new year, such as:

• Bak Kwa - quite possibly the greatest pork snack ever created. Sweet, fatty and utterly delicious.
• Yu Sheng - raw salmon together with yummy veggies and topped with a sweet dressing… the right way to start your reunion dinner.

While reading the Wikipedia entry for Chinese New Year, I noticed something interesting:

Red envelopes traditionally consisted of amounts which were considered multiples. Amounts like $2 (two pieces of $1), or $20 were acceptable. Similarly “multiples” such as $1.10 and $2.20 were also acceptable. However, this is not strictly adhered to. The gift was originally a token amount but these days it is not uncommon to receive large sums in affluent families. In some families this tradition has evolved into the practice to substituting money-like instruments (stocks, bonds, unit trust) in place of large sums of cash.

Imagine getting stocks in your red packet! I can just imagine the conversation, “Gong Xi Fa Cai, here are some stock options for Google. Have fun with your windfall!”. Then again, you might receive Livedoor shares instead.