Chinese New Year Red Pockets

A study of my red pockets for the Year of the Rat... Red pockets also called lucky money or "lai see" are given to the younger generation at the beginning of the Chinese New Year. Within the family, only married people are required to give red pockets and in the workplace, bosses would usually give a "start working" red pocket to his/her staff on the first day of work after the holidays. Red pockets symbolizes the blessings from the older generation to the younger one.

The Hong Kong Obervatory has hoisted the cold weather warning for the 19th consecutive day today with the thermometer hovering around 7-8 C during the day... Since Hong Kong is in a subtropical, central heating and fire places are not common. What we are all doing is to bundle up in knits and down and switching on our radiators all day long... Taking these photos of red pockets, I am looking forward to warmer days... brrrr....