VietNamNet Bridge – In addition to well wishes, the Vietnamese have a long tradition of giving lucky money to children during the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet.

Lucky money is always put in small red envelops since the red color means good luck. -- Illustrative image

Lucky money is always put in small red envelops since the red color means good luck. A few decades ago, the Vietnamese loved to give those banknotes in red like the 10,000 dong note to convey a message of good luck to recipients.

On January 30 you can find many kinds of special money on the market such as the gilded and stamped 2-U.S. dollar banknotes or money collections with the pictures of dragon, unicorn, turtle and phoenix.

In recent years, banknotes with the images of 12 zodiac animals have been used as a gift for Tet. Luu Ha Nam, a member of Tan Phu Numismatic Club, said, “People have tended to search for banknotes having the zodiac animal of the lunar year. For this year, that is the goat.”

According to Nam, members of his group have got involved in this business for four years. They have been looking for money from different countries and territories around the world to choose those notes and coins having the 12 zodiac animals.

For the upcoming Tet, Nam sells banknotes of Uganda, Nepal and Kamberra which are decorated with the image of the goat and priced from VND35,000-150,000 each.  According to ancient Asian belief, the image of the goat represents auspicious fortune and peace.

SGT