Spring Festival Flavor| Chinese New Year Cake, Rise Day by Day

Rice cake, a traditional food of the Han nationality in China, is a food especially suitable for Chinese New Year. During the Spring Festival, many regions in China have a tradition of eating rice cakes.

Rice cake is made of cooked rice or glutinous rice, which is pressed and prepared after being beaten or ground into powder. It has yellow and white colors, symbolizing gold and silver. Rice cake ("nian gao") is also called "nian nian gao," implying that the children who eat the rice cakes are going to get taller and taller. Therefore, the ancients had a poem describing it: "The meaning contained in the rice cake is deeper than the cloud; it is white as silver and yellow as gold; the rice cake will bring you longevity, good fortune and all the best."

It is said that the rice cake was spread everywhere from the capital city of Wu Kindom (now Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province) during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. A folk proverb in Ningbo states that "the rice cake means getting better every year, and this coming year will be better than last year." People also use special printing plates to press rice cake into different shapes and appearances such as "Five Blessings," "Six Treasures," and "Ruyi," symbolizing "good luck" and "great auspiciousness"for the Chinese New Year.