KOTA KINABALU: Will you be disappointed if you receive more RM1 notes in your ang pows for the Chinese New Year?
With the festival starting tomorrow, bank customers in the city centre here were seen making do with stacks of RM1.
Most do not want to go back to the bank later when other denominations are restocked due to the time constraint.
An office worker, who only wanted to be identified as Stacy, said she had no choice but to bring home several stacks of RM1.
She said the ang pow packets will now be “thicker” because she hadn’t had the time to return to the bank to get other notes.
“It’s fine; I don’t think the children would mind counting the RM1 in their ang pow packets when they get them,” she said.
Sabah Chinese Cultural Association president Lewis Wong said for ang pows, what is important is the well wishes of the givers and their intentions.
He said in the past, ang pows, which are called “ya sui qian”, never contained money.
“Inside were just strips of paper with words of wisdom and well wishes written on them from the elders to the young,” he said when contacted.
He said these well wishes were thought of thoroughly, specifically for each person.
Wong said they were supposed to be the blessings of health, wealth, prosperity, beauty and youthfulness for the recipients throughout the year.
Money was gradually placed in these red packets as cultural, social, and economic development progressed.
He said that was because money also symbolised wealth and happiness for the recipients.
“We do not emphasise the value in the red packets themselves but rather the intention from the giver to the recipient,” he added.
