2010-12-23, 03:48 AM
Sarah Wrote:Do you still celebrate Tet at all? Do your parents celebrate Christmas now? How was the transition? Also, about the red envelopes... how much money did they typically contain? And who gave it to you? Just random family members? That seems like such a strange custom! Were the envelopes labeled with names so you knew who it was from?
Yes, we still celebrate Tet. It's not a huge tradition as it was back in my country, but when the time comes, my mom or dad will remind me of it. As for Christmas, I personally celebrate it, but my parents aren't into it that much. They go to my relatives to dine with the rest of the family, but besides that, they're not into it as I am. My dad has been getting more into it as of recent, in fact, he has glowing Christmas trees on his PC's desktop. I actually smiled when I noticed.
The transition was really mind-bending, because I wasn't used to Christmas, and it took me a year or two until I was used to Christmas. In regards to the red envelopes, in Vietnam, I think I received somewhere around 10k-20k, which was barely a single USD if I were to convert it to today's conversion rate.
I would normally receive these red envelopes mostly from family members such as my aunts, uncles, and etc. My father's and mother's side have 9 siblings in the family, so .. yeah. Of course, my mom's side of the family was over in America at the time, so I haven't met them yet when I was younger. I would also receive these red envelopes from neighbors and my parents when I was younger.
And no, they were not labeled with names at all. They would just hand it to me as they walked into my parent's house, or whenever they saw me somewhere. I'm not sure if I did it right, but when I was younger, I think I always had to thank adults properly, and I may have bowed a lot as I thanked them. I don't remember this part really well, it's very foggy for me. In the United States, I still get these red envelopes during the Lunar New Year, except they contain USD. On average, per envelope, I receive about 20 USD. But I only get like 1 or 2 per year, and I don't look forward to it because I always felt weird receiving money from my parents' friends or whatever.
My aunt would also have these envelopes on her Christmas tree sometimes too, if she wanted to give it to us a bit early around Christmas time, and they were labeled with names. This was when I started living in the United States.
If you have any other questions, you're free to ask me.
Also, Sarah. This is basically what it's like every year during Tet over in Vietnam:
[video=youtube;s341hlJI-Ik]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s341hlJI-Ik[/video]