Longevity, luck, health, wealth, peace and harmony … What else could anyone wish for this holiday season?
Bamboo has long been the Chinese symbol for strength. Many admire the bamboo’s qualities of fast-growth and resilience … in fact, it’s pretty hard to kill this stuff even if your thumb is anything BUT green! In Chinese, lucky bamboo is known as Fu Gwey Zhu.
Fu: Luck and fortune
Gwey: Power and honor
Zhu: Bamboo
In India, bamboo symbolized friendship and in Japan it symbolizes prosperity, purity and innocence.
Here’s what you need
- Bamboo stalks, preferably already rooted. I found a bucket-full at my local dollar store … thanks the The Ultimate Cheapskate Jeff Yeager
- Small glass vases or jars. I always keep a few smaller glass jars around rather than immediately recycling them.
- Marbles … dollar shop!
- Ribbons … yes, that same ol’ box of bits and pieces sitting on my DIY shelves
Here’s what you do
1. If the mouth of your jar is wide enough to allow a piece of bamboo and then the marbles, go ahead and put one stalk, often called a “log” into the jar and fill with marbles.
1a. If the mouth of the jar is narrow, fill the jar almost full with marbles. Holding your hand over the mouth to prevent the marbles from falling out, insert a one bamboo log into the jar and carefully – holding the jar upside down, push the log in while allowing the marble to move to the mouth of the jar.
2. Add enough marbles and then water to to reach the top of the vase or jar.
3. Wrap ribbons around the thread of the jar, tie a knot, tie a bow and you are good to go.
Give the gift of luck, fortune, power and honor with bamboo for a meaningful, but EASY last-minute DIY gift idea!
