Moral & Rituals
Nian Gao sounds similar to Nian Gao年高 (年年高生) implying promotions or prosperity year after year. This association makes Nian Gao a popular gift item during the New Year period.
On the more human level, Nian Gao are popular as gifts during the Chinese New Year. The traditional Nian Gao is round with a auspicious decoration such as the character for prosperity on its top.The character is often written in the traditional Chinese script.
Maybe you may think having Nian Gao during these ages in Chinese New Year is old-fashionable .However the market has gradually changed and caught up with the taste of the new generation of customers.
As a gift item, Nian Gao are fashioned into different shapes with attractive packaging to suit the festivee season. Popular designs include a pair of carps(年年有余) symbolizing surplus every year,ingots (元宝), or the God of Wealth财神. These designs are auspicious symbols and sends good wishes for the New Year.
Some innovative producers have added a scratch area for consumers to reveal a lucky number for lottery bets. The production, sales and consumption of Nian Gao is another evidence of food as a transmission medium for social aspirations and how it can be shaped, packaged and promoted in varying forms to resonate with consumer’s social dreams.
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Famous quotes containing the words moral and/or rituals:
“Three years ago, also, when the Sims tragedy was acted, I said to myself, There is such an officer, if not such a man, as the Governor of Massachusetts,—what has he been about the last fortnight? Has he had as much as he could do to keep on the fence during this moral earthquake?... He could at least have resigned himself into fame.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We become male automatically because of the Y chromosome and the little magic peanut, but if we are to become men we need the help of other men—we need our fathers to model for us and then to anoint us, we need our buddies to share the coming-of-age rituals with us and to let us join the team of men, and we need myths of heroes to inspire us and to show us the way.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)