男子假期要吃23桌酒席，网友：得多少份子钱？丨Gift money an outdated practice?
和大家一样，贵州省毕节市的雷先生好不容易盼来了双节假期。可是他却不能休息，还要花费一笔不少的钱——“吃酒”。参加婚宴，比起加班，更让人心力交瘁！更何况是23桌酒，雷先生感觉吃酒吃到了怀疑人生。
The eight-day-long National Day holiday has already begun and people nationwide have been enjoying their leisure time at home or at tourist sites.
Yet for a man surnamed Lei in Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou province, the schedule is filled with feasts. He has 23 to attend, according to reports, and most are for weddings.
He has to arrange members of the whole family to attend each of them on his behalf, but sometimes even that strategy fails. On Oct 1 alone, for example, there were eight feasts to attend but he had only six members in the family.
Attending feasts means giving gift money to the new couples to send them good wishes. Reportedly, given the large number of events, his total budget for gift money is 4,800 yuan ($707.04). And he said that's not all, because his children have already grown up and have their own feasts to attend.
"Almost every year at long holidays, our family has no chance to dine at home. The food we purchased on Sept 30 could stay there until Oct 10," Lei said.
Lei is fortunate because, in his hometown, the standard amount for gift money — 100 or 200 yuan per event — is not so high. Yet in big cities where the average personal income is much greater, the obligatory amount increases too. In Beijing, for example, it has long been practice to give 500 yuan or more as gift money to newlyweds, and some say 200 yuan would be too embarrassing for them.
The expectation of gift money is not unique to weddings, as the custom can be observed in other occasions such as childbirths, entering colleges and even moving to a new house. In some places, all these events have become good reasons to hold feasts, which generate a financial burden.
On social networks, gift money has long been dubbed a "sweet burden". A previous survey of 2,006 individuals revealed that 84.8 percent of them considered it a major source of pressure. If it truly strains one's personal finances, that can surely put a dent in what should otherwise be a joyous occasion — celebrating something special with family and friends.
Here's hoping that one day the practice of gift money at feasts might be optional instead of obligatory, which would give people a much-needed "holiday" from this custom.
记者：张周项
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