Cathy & Dan

As Dan and I started planning this wedding, we wanted to incorporate some elements of Chinese tradition into our day. My mom’s generation didn’t have the fortune to host weddings – Civil War and the Cultural Revolution limited that. One longstanding tradition of Chinese weddings is the red envelope.

The origin of the red envelope lies in Chinese mythology. During New Year’s Eve, the demon Sui would terrorize families by visiting their children as the slept and dragging its talons across their foreheads. The children would awake in fear with a high fever and terrible headache. To prevent this from happening, one family vowed to keep their son up the whole night so the demon would not visit him. The mom placed eight copper coins in a red envelope for her son to play with, and though the son still fell asleep, he had the coins on his pillow.

When Sui arrived, a hazy light started emanating from the coins and grew brighter and brighter until it pierced the demon’s eyes, causing it to flee. The eight coins turned out to be the eight Immortals (another story), protecting the son.

Though the tradition of the red envelope now extends to birthdays, weddings, and other celebrations, the color red and the number eight remain particularly auspicious when giving red envelopes. Even amounts are luckier than odd amounts, with the exception of amounts with four (a homophone for “to die,” to be avoided) and amounts with nine (a homophone for longevity and a long marriage). If you would like to give a gift, we invite you to participate in the tradition of the red envelope.

For cash gifts, you can use:

Otherwise, please find a limited selection of a few items we’d appreciate at West Elm and Amazon: