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The tradition originated more than 4,000 years ago in Chinese lands, where rice has always been a symbol of prosperity. According to legend, it all started when a mandarin (high civil servant in ancient China) would have ordered a rain of rice to be thrown over his daughter after the wedding ceremony, to show everyone his wealth and his love for the girl. From then on, the gesture would have spread all over the world – to the point of giving rise to the expression “party rice”. In the 20th century, the ancient Chinese tradition was affected by the fashion for political correctness: in the United States, bride and groom began to give preference to rose petals, claiming that rice could harm birds that might eat it.