rice cake is a traditional food and New Year food popular in East Asia. In the early days, rice cakes were used to worship gods and ancestors, and then gradually became a kind of Lunar New Year food, steamed with sticky glutinous rice or rice flour.

There is an old legend about the origin of Spring Festival rice cakes. In ancient times, there was a monster called Nian, which lived in the deep mountains and forests all year round. When hungry, it caught other animals to satisfy its hunger. But in the severe winter season, most animals hide and sleep. When Nian was hungry, he went down the mountain to hurt the people, snatched people as food, and made the people miserable. Later, a clever tribe called "Gao Clan", every winter, when the monster was expected to go down the mountain for food, he made a lot of food with grain in advance, twisted it into strips, put it outside the door, and people hid at home. When "Nian" came, people couldn't find anyone to eat, so they were hungry, so they filled their stomachs with food strips made by people and went back to the mountains after eating. When people saw the monster go, they all went out to congratulate each other, glad that they had escaped the "Year of the Year" and were safe and ready for spring ploughing again. In this way, year after year, this method of avoiding animal harm has been handed down. Because the grain strips were made by Gao, in order to feed Nian, Nian and Gao were linked together, and they were called rice cakes (homophonic).