The Nián gāo or Chinese New Year's cake is a type of food that is associated with the Lunar New Year. This cake which is prepared from glutinous rice is used as offering to the Chinese Deities. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during the lunar new year because "nian gao" is a homonym for "a higher year." The Chinese word 粘 (nián), which means "sticky", is similar in sound to 年, which means "year", and the word 糕 (gāo) which means "cake" sounds like 高 "high". Thus, eating nian gao symbolises raising oneself higher for each coming year (年年高升 niánnián gāoshēng).
I bought the smaller Nian Gao as offering for Kuan Yin and the other Buddhas in my house. The small Nian Gao costs RM4. The bigger ones can fetch as much as RM20 or more. Big or small, this food items is compulsory for Taoist households.
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