Chinese New Year Traditions Fact & Fiction Part C

Fiction: Only married people can give hongbao
The practice of handing out hongbao (red packets) started centuries ago in China when older folk gave coins to younger family members as yasuiqian (which literally means "money to suppress ageing") to help them hold off the advancing years and retain their youthfulness, according to fengshui.

But it soon developed into a custom where anyone who holds a job even the unmarried gave a red packet to their grandparents, parents as well as young children in the family.

Fact: Giving hongbao to maids, subordinates and other service workers
As a reward for their year-round hard work, it was a Chinese custom for bosses to give employees hongbao on the first day of Chinese New Year.

In fact, a few days before, bosses traditionally treated their staff members to a lavish dinner. While meant as a group morale-booster, but the meal was also meant to send a veiled warning to the worst performer.

Chicken was served and the worker was asked to sit facing its head. The hint: Buck up or get chopped.

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Fiction: Gambling day and night
Rambunctious sessions of mahjong or cards are no traditional Chinese New Year practice, more like a congenital Chinese vice.

Chinese people just love to gamble, whether it's at weddings, birthdays or Chinese New Year".

He adds that early immigrant coolies in Singapore may have taken to gambling during Chinese New Year because it was one of the few holidays they had back then. Besides having time at their disposal, most also felt "rich" enough for a gamble, having freshly collected their annual hongbao from their bosses.