Mighty morphin' power angbaos

"WHERE got such thing?!" my mum exclaimed at the dinner table, when my brother and I said that newlyweds didn't need to give angbaos.

This was a few months ago, when we were discussing our Chinese New Year plans. The Tays had expanded, you see - my elder brother and I each got married late last year - and we were trying to coordinate the yearly bolero of whose house to visit when.

Apparently, neither of my parents had ever heard of this new-fangled rule: that newly married couples get a one-year angbao holiday during their first Chinese New Year together. The thinking behind it is summed up simply as "give chance, lah" - couples have presumably just spent a boatload on their wedding, and need time to recoup their cash before distributing red packets.