Grabbing red envelopes has been hogging the limelight in our daily life since the 2016 Spring Festival. At no point is it clearer that this activity has endowed our vapid life with the flavor of high-tech and fun, especially giving traditions typical of festive periods, such as the Chinese New Year and Chinese Valentine’s Day, a facelift.
However, some people may be trapped in a situation where they put the cart before the horse. Disappointedly, what some people do on festivals is not to communicate with their relatives and friends but to hold their cell phones and fix their eyes on the screen all day long, just in order to grab red envelops. For my part, what really matters is the relationship instead of the money. Essentially speaking, gifting red envelopes is beyond reproach. Only in a rational way shall we not be reduced to slaves of materialism or hijacked by the high technology.
Festivals offer precious opportunities for us to send good wishes to our beloved ones and what we should do is to cherish these chances rather than to ignore the essential connotation of the festivals. Anyhow, kinship, friendship and other relationships are above anything and we ought to make every endeavor lest the profound cultural atmosphere of traditional festivals should decline.
