Dear Diary: Hong Bao

By Staff Writer Eleanor Chen

Introduction:

Marked by the neighing of the horse zodiac —- on February 17th, a new Lunar year begins. A crumbled, dust-ridden hong bao (a red envelope containing money, given as a gift on holidays) is fed up with impatient, greedy children. Through his Dear Diary, he reveals the history behind the ancient tradition of distributing red pockets — originally started off as a ward against evil spirits — and has now become a way to pass blessings to loved ones.

January 1 @ 1 p.m.

Small children clamour around the tiny kitchen table, passing around an old, dusty hong bao. “Is it $100 big buck-a-roos?” one asks. “Nah, more like $1,000!” another shoots back. One child scoffs. “It’s as old as Nai Nai, I bet it’s got nothing but ol’ cobwebs,” they said. “Ai-ya!” shouts a voice from down below. Suddenly, the hong bao the children were holding wrestled itself out of their snot-covered grasp. Falling dramatically in slow motion, the children watch with awed eyes and open mouths as the hong bao landed on Nai Nai’s old journal, revealing a tiny diary hidden within. “You kids know nothing about hong baos! I, Lao Hong, the first and oldest of the hong baos, will teach you!” 

February 12, 206 BCE @ 2 a.m. 

Once upon a time, there was once a demon called Sui, who prowled the lands dragging a talon across sleeping children’s foreheads. Startled, the children would awaken, throbbing with a demonic headache. Worried about their son’s welfare, determined parents kept their beloved son awake during the night. However, as the hours continued, the boy’s eyelids began dropping. Desperate, his mother slipped eight lucky coins into a red hong bao. The gods answered her plea; they bestowed their powers to create Lao Hong, who glowed with a brilliant light and blinded the demon

February 13, 220 BCE @ 12 a.m. 

I, Lao Hong, hardly sense any evil spirits to ward off, as I’ve defeated Sui so long ago. I know I should leave this family to get on to the next, but as I write this entry, I can’t help but feel a tug. The old man is working tirelessly by candle-light, carving an amulet in the shape of the one his granddaughter wanted with his shaky, callused hands. The family lives with hardly enough to eat and resides in a shabby shack too small to fit them both. I can feel the old man’s fervent wish for her to grow up with plenty without the means of providing. The gods laze about, hardly answering their prayers anymore, so I shall do it in their stead for this family, granting long lives full of wealth and prosperity. 

January 22, 1368 @ 6 p.m. 

What a pitiful sight! Such a small boy with so much life, huddled beneath the covers. Doctors have bustled in and out, prescribing odd herbs of sorts, but none could awaken the boy. Only the boy’s older brother has remained at the boy’s side, steadfast, clutching in his hand eight golden coins threaded with red silk. His prayer thickened the air so much that I couldn’t help but answer it. What good are my blessings if I cannot share it? The demons have long been extinct; there’s no point in conserving my prayers anymore. To watch the boy walk for the first time in months on unsteady legs as his brother and parents weeped, I have found my true calling —- creating the blessings of loved ones. 

January 1 @ 3 p.m. 

Lao Hong admonished the children, “Hong baos are not cherished for the money they hold, but for the blessings loved ones pass on.” The children, still wide-eyed and surprised, numbly nodded. When the kitchen door opened to their Nai Nai, the children rushed over to greet her merrily and help with her bags. Pleasantly surprised, Nai Nai laughed, joking, “Hai zi, are you behaving so nicely just for the hong bao I left?” The children shook their heads, proclaiming they were behaving because they love her. One mischievous child still asked how much was in it, getting elbowed in the ribs by the other two. Nai Nai patted their heads and opened up Lao Hong, only to reveal an empty hong bao. “The money is safely stored away for future use,” she winked, “But there are blessings aplenty for you all. May this year bring you luck, wealth, and prosperity.”