Traditional Chinese auspicious patterns signify "All Wishes Granted." [Photo/ezhimu.com]

New Year Gifts

"‘Xinger reports that packets of loose gold amounting to a hundred and fifty-three taels and sixty-seven cents, madam,' she presented them for inspection and her mistress saw that they were of different shapes, plum-blossom, crab-apple-blossom, a writing brush and an ellipsoid signifying 'All Wishes Granted'."(Chapter 53, an English translation of A Dream of Red Mansions by Yang Xianyi)

The Jia family depicted in A Dream of Red Mansions is the epitome of the noble class in feudal China. They live a luxurious and extravagant life due to their ancestors' contribution to the royalty, and each year they would be granted with an imperial bounty for New Year's sacrifices. During the Spring Festival, the family has a huge budget to spend on gifts. The gifts were usually gold or silver ingots shaped into auspicious patterns like lotus or plum flowers.