So It's Tradition huh

In many occasions we are required to sent gifts, either in forms of money or other types of present. From the past it's tradition for Chinese to give red packets with money inside(angpau) to their young during Chinese new year to protect them from bad events (as believed by Chinese since before).

However, as the time and era pasts, what changed the most is our thoughts. Chinese may still give red packets to their own kids to wish them good luck, but when they give red packets to other's people kids it was more like giving because they should. If other people give your children red packets and you do not return his generosity by "wishing" his child children good luck (with red packets too, of course), then people will stare at you like you are some kind of horrible people, and rush to chat about how stingy and antisocial you are behind your back.

In the past when the technology and living condition is not so good, people are not immersed in television programs and internet or computer games. So they mingle around in their society and get well with their neighbors and friends. They also always give each other things they have too much or people need because they are friendly and helpful.

Today in our modern society, we still give people things sometimes, so the tradition is still being carried on. I guess while we can say it's good that the "appearance" of this good tradition that symbolizes helpfulness and friendliness continue, the bad thing here is the true meaning of the tradition has disappeared in most cases. In most cases today, people give things to people because they have too much and want to get rid of it,not sharing good things (although if you somehow know that the person need the thing the case is different). In other occasions where they give to congratulate, people just give money today (I because money is the most important thing in our life already) in the form of red packets, and the reason they give mostly is because of "peer pressure".

Personally, I think that while human evolve and become more "modern" today, we give in too much to make way for our materialistic luxuries, and things we have given up include our true feelings for each other. Maybe it's because we don't need to depend on each other to live anymore, but this transformation slowly turns us into the kind of people who live in our own world. Slowly we began to forget this world is supposed to be everyone's together, and together we should work to make it a better place.

That is why people nowadays may think tradition is a waste and there's no real meaning to us. They are not totally wrong having this kind of thoughts. It's the era and the mind of people that changed, and although we appeared to be carrying on our ancestors' tradition in the exact way, we missed the most important thing: the spirit of the tradition. And with the spirit long gone, we are just people doing things named "tradition" like robots doing their chores, and it's anything but meaningful.

So it's tradition huh? Big deal!

If you hear your kids telling you that, it's not your kids' fault. It's your fault for not keeping the spirit alive in them.