In feng shui, you don't just give a gift for any occasion out of love! Beyond it, your gift must be inspired by any of the five happiness in Chinese culture to share: good luck, longevity, double happiness, wealth and good health! How, how the carabao to do this? Don't choose gifts the eenie meenie my ne moe or pen pen de sarapen way!
Let me warn you first of what not to gift! Here is a shortlist: never give clocks as they indicate putting a time sentence to relationship between giver and receiver! Also shoes, inasmuch as in olden folklore new shoes are for the dead to be put in the coffin for journey to the afterlife. Or knives and scissors as they cut off relations again in due time. Likewise, no lion or tiger figurines, even merlion souvenirs from Singapore! They bite away marriages. Never items against the Chinese zodiac sign of the receiver i.e., a horse for a rat person!
Now what to give gift menu listings:
One of the best surprises for a wife or girlfriend is a house and lot, but make sure it has good feng shui, even if it is a condo unit! For a hubby, a car! But make sure too it’s in his lucky color with auspicious car plates like 168, 888! Or a baby! But make sure the baby is compatible to both mother or father!
Any décor with bat or bats augur good fortune.
Money is great, if placed in a lai see or lucky money red envelope in auspicious amounts ending in 8, 88 or 168 denominations! Feng shui gift giving also stresses that it's the thought that counts.
Simple gifts like fruits, but make it auspicious, like 88 golden oranges or lucky fruit sets, like 8 kinds of round fruits with pineapple signifying welcoming abundance and prosperity is apt! Flowers especially for lover, the sick and the dead are lucky! Just choose the right ones, never give a wreath wantonly so to speak! Another option is lucky food! Like whole fried chicken, peking duck or a wholesome oyster, mussel or clam soup dish!
In the advent of the recent earthquake upon our brethren in SugBohol, the best gift is to pay it forward! Let me invite you then to gift them with a simple pail and dipper (balde and tabo) for their basic need of water for life! For donations (pegged at 28 pesos per pail), no pressure on amount of donation: kindly send your equivalent pail donations to DYRC : BDO -ESCARIO BRANCH CEBU CITY account name: BISALOG BROADCASTING STATION account # 1008009272. Even a donation of just a set or a pail and tabo will go a long way, from little acorns let our mighty oak of bayanihan grow! Let us help them in the least that we can do in this noisy confusion of the coming Christmas season so as to hasten normalizing their lives! Amen? Done! Or through The Freeman Foundation!