Run Rabbit, Run!

Chinese New Year of the Rabbit is upon us and this year we decided to put together a set of Hong Bao's. These are traditionally red packets containing money given out during family or social gatherings during Chinese New Year or at weddings.

There are no clear sources which trace the origin of the red envelope tradition although it is said during the Qing Dynasty the elderly would thread coins with a red string. The money was called yāsuì qián and was believed to have protected the elderly from sickness and death. The yāsuì qián was replaced by red envelopes when printing presses became more common.

So, bucking tradition we developed a series of silver 'red' packets which featured 3 different tangram rabbits. Tangram (seven boards of skill) originated in China and is a dissection puzzle game using seven shapes. The objective of the game was to form an outline of an object. There are approximately 5,900 different shapes that can be achieved, we managed 3!