The pink wedding invitation was placed on the table, next to a phone that was ready for calculation, Ms. Minh Anh, 33 years old, in Thai Nguyen, sat quietly for quite a long time.
In 2020, at her wedding, Minh Anh was given 1 tael of gold by her close friend. At that time, the value of the gift was about 4.6 million VND.
Amidst so many envelopes and gifts, that gift made her remember it for a long time, not only because of its material value but also because of the feeling of being cherished and cared for.
At that time, I found my friend too sophisticated. Celebrating gold was both beautiful and meaningful, and very different from cash. Receiving it was really fun," she recounted.
But more than 5 years passed, when that friend was preparing to get married, the joy of that year suddenly became a very real concern.
If giving back 5 million VND in cash, that number, considering the value at the time, is not small at all. But if calculated according to the old gift, which is 1 tael of gold, then the current amount is a different story.
Honestly, I see that anyone who gives wedding gifts in gold is really smart. Receiving them is very happy, it feels both meaningful and practical. But when I go to return the gift, I feel sweating," Minh Anh smiled, but his voice still could not hide his hesitation.
That story is not uncommon in the lives of many young people who have passed the age of first marriage, starting to enter the stage of returning gifts to friends and relatives.
Celebrating a wedding with gold is still considered a way to give luxurious, beautiful and meaningful gifts. One tael of gold or half a tael of gold is not only a material gift, but also like a wish for a fulfilling and long-lasting married life.
However, precisely because it is too specific and too easy to remember, that gift later puts the recipient in a difficult position.
Cash can be flexible according to circumstances, income, and level of intimacy at each time. Gold is almost a very clear milestone. Having received gold, when it comes to congratulating it again, many people find it difficult to consider it just a simple social matter.
She wondered: "Celebrating less is afraid of making you feel sad. Celebrating exactly 1 tael of gold, you have to consider between the desire to reciprocate beautifully and the actual spending of the family.
The closer you are, the more you think. No one says it, but I still want to behave properly, so that people see that I cherish that feeling".
In close relationships, wedding gifts are never just material things. It is also a way for people to preserve feelings through important milestones in life.
Perhaps that's why many people still jokingly say that welcoming a wedding with gold is a very "visionful" way of celebrating. The person receiving the wedding day may be happy once, but when holding the invitation card of the person who once congratulated them, the gift from that year suddenly becomes a very long concern.
One gold tael from more than 5 years ago, turned out to be not only in the old wedding gift box. It also lay for a long time in the recipient's memory, so that one day, the old joy suddenly changed into a difficult calculation, between feelings and how to reciprocate completely.
