Hong Bao Goldfish and Marvelous Mess

The Chinese Lantern festival represents the end of the New Year celebrations and, as you would guess, also involves a whole lot of lanterns!! I made a Lantern out of Hong Bao (the traditional red envelope for presents) paper and into the shape of a Goldfish:

I found the tutorial online with the help of YouTube. You should try it! Though, prepare yourself for a whole lot of pausing. Go HERE for the video. 

Here are some other views of my Goldfish:

He's a pretty cute little guy. If you want to buy Hong Bao paper, I found mine on Amazon. There is paper for New Year and paper packets for wedding presents....turns out I used the wedding type without knowing and this got a few laughs from my Chinese friends. 

Why are fish so prominent in Chinese culture, you might be wondering?

The word for fish:    鱼 yú 

Sounds like these words:

1. 裕 yù  abundant  (imagine many fish swimming)
   
2. 腴 yú  fertile; rich (fish have many offspring; a full net of fish = rich)
   
3. 煜 yù  brilliant; glorious (like shimmering scales)
   
4. 玉  yù  jade (because it’s brilliant)
   
5. 慾 yù  desire; wish (for some fish, or some jade)
   
6. 矞 yù  grand; elegant (getting further away from the original meaning, but someone wearing jade looks elegant)
   
7. 誉 yù  reputation 
   
8. 伃 yú  handsome
   

And the word for goldfish:  金鱼jīnyú   literally starts with the character for gold / money. 

 (Thank you to weninchina.com for the translation!)

I shared this post at the following parties:
Between Naps On The Porch

My fave from last weeks party was....

Crock Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal by Organizer By Day.

Now on to the party!