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Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern

8 December 2022 by Eileen

Who loves money? Chinese people believe that in the coming New Year, the house needs to fill with good fortune and wealth in order to be wealthy for the rest of the year. Hence they decorate their house full of auspicious items to welcome good fortune, wealth and prosperity! On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the God of Wealth will visit each household to bless the family with wealth. This is why we never sweep the floor for the first few days of the new year. It is bad luck if we sweep the floor, as we will sweep all the wealth away!

Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern instructions

Many Chinese might buy ready-made (fake) gold ingots to decorate their plants, doors, tables, walls etc., but never the toilet. Some of us will make a Chinese ingot lantern using ang pow to decorate our house. Follow me to learn how to make it.

Before I show you the step-by-step, do read the history of the Chinese Ingot or Sycee for better understanding. This Chinese Ingot is also called Yuan Bao in Mandarin.

Remember before we make any ang pow/red envelope lantern, you have to select the right design for the ang pow and thickness. Try not to mix different designs together as it won’t look as nice.

For this craft, you can choose designs with one Chinese Word like 福 (fu) meaning fortune or good luck is represented as a Chinese ideograph. It will work well either in red colour or yellow ang pow. You do not need a design on the back of the ang pow. As for thickness, try to get soft or medium thick for flexibility. I bought this ang pow from Amazon and it was far too thick, hence you can see some corners are torn, which is not ideal.

This Chinese Ingot measures approximately 26.5 cm by 16.5 cm, not including the length of the Chinese knot tassel and string. The rating of difficulty is 2 out of 5, which should take roughly 45 minutes to complete. If you have a large front door, you can also make more than one lantern and join them all in a vertical roll to hang on both sides of the door. It will make a big statement for your house.

Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern materials

You will require these materials:

  • 16 rectangle ang pows / red envelope (approx. 7.6 cm by 11.5 cm)
  • 1 small red card (approx. 7.6 cm by 1 cm) – I cut from the bottom of an ang pow
  • stapler & staples
  • ruler
  • 50 – 60 cm red string
  • 1 Chinese knot tassel

These are the step-by-step instructions:

  1. Find the midpoint of the ang pow by folding the ang pow into half vertically but don’t press the fold all the way down. Instead, just press the two corners of the joint down. This is a marker for later use.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern fold side

  2. Next, open the ang pow out again. Then fold the ang pow into half horizontally and again only press the two corners of the joint down. Repeat for the rest of the ang pows. These are markers for later use.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern fold half

  3. Now to fold each side of the 16 ang pows – from the midpoint that we found on the ang pow make a fold from the top midpoint to the left midpoint, the left midpoint to the bottom midpoint, the bottom midpoint to the right midpoint and from the right midpoint to the top midpoint. The end result should be four diagonal folds (diamond shape).  I use a ruler to help me to fold the corners neatly.  Make sure that you fold the design on the ang pow inward to the back of the ang pow.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern fold using ruler
    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern ang pow diamond

  4. Now we are going to make the front of the ingot by using eight ang pows. Staple three ang pows (numbers 1, 2 and 3) together along the folds as shown. Try to staple it close to the joint, please see photo. This will form the middle of the ingot.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern 1 to 3 ang pow
    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern 1 to 3 ang pow back

  5. Staple one ang pow (numbers 4 and 5) on each side to form an ‘X’ shape.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern joint 4 and 5

  6. Staple one ang pow (numbers 6 and 7) on both sides of the X shape.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern join 6 and 7

  7. Rotate number 8 ang pow horizontally and staple on number 7.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern join 8

  8. Now repeat steps 4 to 7 to create the back of the ingot.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern front and back

  9. Join ang pow number 8 to the back of the ingot. Please see photo.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern join front and back

  10. Now join the back of the ingot to the front of the ingot. It will initially form a cylinder.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern join

  11. Fold ang pow numbers 3 and 4 to form the base (it will look like a triangle shape). Turn around to the back and do the same. Now you will have a flat base. Staple the base as shown.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern base
    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern base staple

  12. Take a small piece of card and insert the Chinese knot tassel in. place the card in between the base and staple it down.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern chinese knot tassel
    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern base with knot tassel

  13. Now we are moving to the top of the ingot. Join both corners and staple them together.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern side ang pow 8

  14. Open the flaps of numbers 1 and 5 on the front of the ingot and join to the back of the ingot. At the same time place the red string into the gap and staple it down.

    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern with red string
    Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern top

Now you will have a Chinese ingot lantern to decorate your house with. In Singapore, they will say ‘huat ah’ which means good luck! I hope this lantern will help you to huat ah!  Or you can make this Chinese coin instead.

What do you think about this Chinese ingot lantern? My son said it looks like a handbag and my daughter said it looks like a graduation hat. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Disclosure: We have included Amazon affiliate links to the products. If you click on this and buy, we may earn a small commission but at no additional cost to you.

Chinese New Year Chinese Ingot Lantern pinterest

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Filed Under: Chinese New Year Craft Tagged With: Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year Craft, Craft, Lunar New Year, 红包灯笼

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Hello!

Welcome to ET Speaks From Home. My name is Eileen, mother of two children aged 17 and 16 with visual impairment. We've been online since 2012 and continue to grow. I love to cook, craft, DIY, write about Chinese Culture and YouTube reviews.
Top 20 UK Parent Blogs 2020
Tots100 2014 Top 20 Blog on Twitter
Tots100 2015 Mummy Vloggers, Tots100 2016 Top 20 Vloggers
Shortlisted Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards (BiBs) Video 2014 Read More…

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