In the Spring Festival of 2024, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner has been eaten, the Spring Festival Gala has been watched, the mother's family has returned, and there is a unified national "routine action": go to relatives. Those who are closer move around villages, towns, and urban areas, those who are a little farther need to cross cities, and those who are farther away may have to cross provinces. The hardship, heart, sweetness and sourness, warmth and coldness are all different.
Visiting relatives during the Chinese New Year has been the "reserved program" of the Spring Festival for thousands of years, just like sticking the Spring Festival, keeping the New Year, and eating Chinese New Year's Eve, it has never changed, it has at least 3 characteristics:
1. What you go is "remembering the bitter and sweet"., the most enthusiastic and insistent on going to relatives, is the group of middle-aged and elderly people over 50 years old, uncles and sisters-in-law, brothers and sisters, in the difficult years, each other helped to pull through, life is slowly getting better, feelings have been hidden in the bottom of the heart.
2. It is "human sophistication"., to prevent relatives from breaking contact, to prevent the family style inheritance, greetings between each other, between eating and drinking, this is a good opportunity to communicate with relatives.
3. Walking is "different from intimacy"., those who mix a little better, relatives with a certain strength, will go every year, dragging their families with their mouths; Relatives with average family backgrounds may go back once in a few years, or even slowly break off their relatives.
Visiting relatives is a comprehensive test activity of "brain, physical and financial resources", what to say when meeting, what not to say, to sum up; It is inevitable to eat and drink, to have a good stomach and a good body; Some families have more relatives, and the east family goes in and out of the west, which is very tiring.
The most important and maximum support point, the final foothold, must be "financial resources".
Some people summarize it very well: the Chinese New Year is a "hemorrhage" of money, and it is a considerable part of the money that is usually earned, and it is taken out for a few days to "finish it", which has a certain truth.
What money must be spent on visiting relatives during the Chinese New Year? It may be different from place to place, but the 6 expenses of the average family are similar, such as:
1. Red envelopes for visiting elders, the father's brothers and sisters - uncles and aunts, the mother's brothers and sisters - aunts and uncles, and possibly grandparents, grandparents and relatives, these red envelopes are not light, they are sincere, and they wish the old people a long and healthy life.
2. Give red envelopes to juniors, which relative's family has no less children to start, more than ten or twenty. The red envelopes given to the younger generations in various places are different, some are given under the age of 16, some are not involved in the work, and some are rewarded as long as they kowtow and greet them.
3. Affection between peers, more common in cousins, relatives, whether they are married or not, they usually meet and will have it, the red envelope that is familiar is a little thicker, and the meaning of not being familiar is OK.
4. New Year's goods purchase expenses, This is the "big head" of relatives, some places are popular with good cigarettes and good wine, and thousands of them are given to the elders to go out at every turn, some old people value clothes, better ones are not cheap, and there are health care products and nutritional products for the elderly, ** are not low, and others are some flowers, fruits, sugar, small gifts and other expenses, as well as the cost of family banquets or hotel meals, and so on.
5. Personal image fee, including the cost of dressing up for both husband and wife, new clothes for children, and some may also specialize in some gold and silver jewelry or cosmetics.
6. Travel and other expenses, mainly transportation expenses, taxi or self-driving money, some may rent a car to go home for the New Year, the cost is thousands, other expenses include class reunions, New Year's cards to add, and so on.
These 6 fees:
Those who visit the elders usually start at a few hundred yuan per red envelope, and the more is several thousand yuan.
The reward for younger generations varies from place to place, generally 100-200 yuan, and some are more than 500 yuan.
Most of the favors between peers are auspicious, and they are basically not less than 100 yuan.
The cost of New Year's goods is rich and thrifty, and some of them may exceed 10,000 yuan, or even tens of thousands, which is more common in newlyweds.
The cost of personal image is usually several thousand, and the more middle-aged couples, the less particular they are.
Travel and other expenses are not less than 1,000 yuan, and if you rent a car, it is more expensive.
Taken together, a lot of the income in 2023 may be spent on the Spring Festival. Some places like to compare, which is irrational and not worth advocating.
Although some people's economic income has fluctuated greatly in recent years, some families still follow the "convention" of spending relatives, and the pressure is relatively great; Some people live within their means, slightly better, but are also worried about being pointed at.
Have you ever gone to relatives to do big things with little money? It could be the Guangdong region.
Many people think that Cantonese people go to their relatives to "search" during the Spring Festival. In fact, Cantonese people are also divided into places for the New Year, some are "proud", and some are "picky", such as red envelopes, and most of the blood relatives are a few hundred yuan; 50-100 yuan for relatives or cousins; Most of the distant relatives are 10-20 yuan.
As for the New Year's goods of relatives, Cantonese people do not smoke and drink as in other places, but "".Pick three out of five": Cakes, biscuits, milk, herbal tea, candy assortment, citrus, and gelding chicken, a set of four or five hundred yuan, but the appearance must be festive.
What is even more interesting is that only some fruits are left in the relatives' house, and then the rest is "returned" as it is, and some are added, and the "big army" continues to go to the next family. In 2024, the taste will become stronger In this way, most Cantonese people go to relatives, and the whole process is one or two thousand yuan, which is low-key and pragmatic, and practicality is paramount.
However, as the younger generation gradually grows up, they are becoming more and more unaccustomed to "visiting relatives", thinking that the form is "very empty", the meaning is "very light", the comparison is "very heavy", and the household registration check is "very annoying", and they urgently need to "rectify", and they scoff at those who spend a lot of money on relatives.
What do you think about this? How much did you spend visiting relatives during the Spring Festival this year?