Japanese Tradition - Mochi Pounding
Many places hold mochi pounding when the New Year approaches.
The "Mochitsuki Festival" is a classic year-end event in Japan. It is held at various places such as schools and neighborhood associations.
Mochi has been considered a sacred food in Japan since ancient times. Originally, rice was considered sacred in Japan, and the rice from the rice plant was said to strengthen the life force. The rice from the rice plant was said to strengthen the life force, and rice cakes, which are made by pounding the rice and hardening it, were thought to have particularly strong power. This is why people began to make rice cakes on special occasions, and the practice of making rice cakes at the end of the year in preparation for the New Year, which is the most important time of the year, seems to have become a common practice.
Note that when rice cake pounding is done at the end of the year, it is often avoided on December 29 for good luck. This is because of the "double burden" and the number 9, which is associated with "suffering". On the other hand, in some regions, it is interpreted as "good fortune will come".
In Japan, there is a belief in rice cultivation, and rice has been revered as something sacred, inhabited by the "spirit of rice" or the "spirit of grain. Rice from rice is a sacred food that strengthens people's life force, and rice cakes made from rice and sake brewed from rice are considered to be especially powerful.
Rice cakes and sake brewed from rice are said to be especially powerful. Because rice cake pounding cannot be done by a single person, it has a social significance in that it enhances the sense of solidarity and sharing the joy of making rice cakes.
Mochi pounding also became an established food for special occasions, such as Kagamimochi for New Year's Day, Hishimochi for Peach Festival, and Kashiwa Mochi for Boys' Festival. Mochi plays an especially important role in New Year's, the main pillar of Japanese event culture, and so people began to make rice cakes at the end of the year.
Why are rice cakes essential for the New Year?
Mochi has a special meaning for New Year's Day. Since ancient times, it has been believed that the "New Year's God" who presides over the New Year comes on New Year's Day to give us the spirit of the New Year (nenzumari). The soul here refers to something like the energy to live. Since one's age can be determined by counting the number of times one's soul is received, it was common in the olden days to count the number of years one was born and to age on the first day of the year thereafter.
The symbol of the spirit of the New Year is the round-shaped "Kagamimochi" (mirror-shaped rice cake). As the "Yata no Kagami" is one of the three sacred objects, the mirror was also a symbol of the gods, and so the old round-shaped mirror was represented by a sacred rice cake, which came to be called Kagamimochi. A series of New Year's events such as cleaning, Kadomatsu, Shimekidari, and Osechi-ryori were established to welcome the New Year God, and it is believed that the New Year God who comes to the house depends on Kagamimochi.
