During this month, I am going to write a series of Chinese New Year posts from making lanterns, zodiac, Feng Shui to Chinese culture. This is my first blog post of my Chinese New Year series. Look out for the rest of the posts! Today, I am going to use Ang Pow (red packets) to make a Fish Lantern. So what is an Ang Pow? It is a red envelope/packet that contain a monetary gift which is given during Chinese New Year or special occasions like weddings or birthdays etc. They are called Hong Bao (红包) in Mandarin or Ang Pow/Bao in Singapore Hokkien or Lai See in Cantonese. Click here to read more about it.
Chinese New Year Ang Pow Lantern
This is a very simple and straightforward Chinese Lantern. The rating of difficulty is 1 out of 5. This is a very small lantern, which measures approximately 13 cm, not including the length of the Chinese knot tassel and string. It is an such easy craft for children to do and won’t take more than 15 minutes to do. It will make a great Chinese New Year theme craft for younger children. You can also make more than one lantern and join them all in a vertical roll or horizontally as a banner.
Chinese New Year Mini Ang Pow Lantern
I was asked by our Lichfield Mandarin Club to teach our members to make a Chinese New Year mini ang pow lantern. So I decided to blog the step by step instructions. The difficulty rating is 1 out of 5. You can also make more than one lantern and decorate them like how you decorate your Christmas tree.