Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Earlier this year, I made a multitude of hong bao lanterns – do check out my Chinese New Year Pinterest board for inspiration. This latest hong bao mini lantern is quite unique as you are using wooden skewers to make the frame of the lantern instead of using sticky tape or staples to construct it.
For this mini lantern, I have used small rectangle hong baos (approx. 7.5 cm by 11.5 cm). The material of this hong bao is quite stiff so I didn’t need to insert any additional card to keep the shape.
新年快乐, 祝你吉祥如意。Happy New Year and wishing you a prosperous year and may all your dreams come true. Let’s use ang baos to make a ‘Ji’/吉 word to bring good luck to your home! Ji or 吉 as a Chinese character means good luck.
Today, I am showing you another craft to hide any unsightly items around the house this coming Chinese New Year. It can be used as a pot cover or a bowl. It is entirely your choice.
Need a quick fix to hide any unsightly-looking items around the house this coming Chinese New Year? Or want something beautiful to display items in your home? Then make yourself your very own ang bao basket and fill them with yummy delicious fruits, snacks or even flowers! You can even gift them as part of your wrapper for a CNY hamper.
Last month, I made a Chinese New Year ang pow wreath for my lotus lantern and now I am back with more for more creative crafts, which I will call a Hong Bao Wall Wreath. In fact, hong bao and ang pow are the same things. Hong bao is the Mandarin pronunciation and whilst ang pow or ang bao is the dialect pronunciation.
Running out of ang pows (red envelope/red packet) to decorate your home? Try this paper cutting flower to decorate your home this coming Lunar New Year! This is a very easy craft to follow and great for younger children to do.
Wishing you all an abundant and surplus-filled year after year (年年有余 Nian Nian You Yu)! This is a commonly used expression we use to greet each other during the Chinese New year. 年 in Chinese means year and 余 (surplus) shares the same pronunciation with 鱼 (fish). Hence this ang pow fish lantern will surely bring wealth into your home! Come and try it out!
Want your home to shine like a star? Why not hang a few ang pow star lanterns around your home to impress your family and friends this coming Chinese New Year 2023! Chinese people love to decorate their homes with red lanterns during the Chinese New Year celebration as they symbolize wealth, fame and prosperity. It’s also to frighten away evil spirits.
In two more weeks, it’ll be the end of the Year of the Tiger, and we will be celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit on 22 January 2023! I would like to take this opportunity to blog more on Chinese New Year crafts and hope you all like it.
Lucky lucky eight is so many Chinese people’s favourite number because eight (八 ba) sounds like 發 (fa) in Chinese, which means wealth, fortune, and prosperity! Hence many will pay extra for the number 8 in their phone number, car plate, house number and many more!
Impress your family and friends this Year of the Rabbit 2023 with this cute Chinese New Year Ang Pow candy pouch! This candy pouch is made from ang pow/red packet/red envelope and you can fill it with lots of sweeties and chocolates. If you are feeling rich, you could even fill them with cash instead! Everyone would love to receive one! Or you can make a few to decorate your house or your house plants.
Today, I am showing you how to make this ang pow gourd for Chinese New Year. You might be wondering what is the connection of gourd to the Chinese New Year. Gourd in Chinese is called 葫芦(hú lu) and it also sounds like 福禄(fú lù) in Chinese, which means fortune and wealth. Also, this fruit contains a lot of seeds and they symbolise productivity and fertility. Hence gourd is an auspicious item!
Want to send some love to your loved ones? Then come and make this ang pow heart lantern this Chinese New Year to show your appreciation! They can also be used for decorations for weddings! Just use wedding-themed ang pows instead.
Want to impress your family and friends this coming Chinese New Year 2023? Then come and try out this pop-out flower ang pow to decorate your home. This craft only uses 10 ang pows and will look great as a wall decoration. It is so easy to make too.
Looking to make a uniquely shaped ang pow lantern? Try out this cute long ang pow lantern. It is so easy to make. This long ang pow lantern display measures approximately 31 cm by 25 cm, not including the length of the Chinese knot tassel at the bottom or the red string on top. The rating of difficulty is 1.5 out of 5, which should take roughly 45 minutes to complete. Do check out my Chinese New Year Pinterest board for more inspiration.
