On the Table – Chuseok: A Feast Honoring Ancestors in South Korea

Chuseok is one of the most celebrated holidays in South Korea. The three-day harvest festival prompts a mass exodus from the cities as Koreans return to their ancestral hometowns to share a traditional feast with their families. While Chuseok is often misunderstood as the “Korean Thanksgiving”—both holidays point to a time when agriculture and farming was more prominent—Chuseok is deeply rooted in Korea’s ancient tradition of ancestor worship. Today, Chuseok persists as an important means of preserving tradition and cultural identity in the face of the country’s rapid modernization.

As with similar celebrations elsewhere in the world, Chuseok is timed with the harvest moon of the autumn equinox (specifically the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar). Families begin the holiday morning with chayre, a ritual that honors ancestors and thanks them for the year’s good harvest. To return their ancestors’ favor and protection, an array of special foods are prepared and left as an offering arranged according to age-old customs. [1. Hae-chung, Woo & Nam, Yoon-seo. “Feast for ancestors.” http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/09/116_164265.html (accessed Nov. 20, 2014).] Only after this important symbolic gesture is completed can the family feast and play folk games, which vary from region to region. [2. “Chuseok.” Visit Korea. http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=811650 (accessed September 19, 2014).]

To celebrate a good harvest, dishes prepared for Chuseok use the best freshly harvested grains and produce. Traditionally, the first rice harvest of the year was used to make the essential Chuseok delicacy songpyeon. [3. “Rice Cake Songpyeon.” Maangchi. http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/songpyeon (accessed Nov. 20, 2014).] This special type of steamed rice cake (tteok) is stuffed with a variety of fillings such as ground sesame and honey, red beans, or chestnut paste. Songpyeon gets its name, as well as its distinctive flavor and aroma, from the practice of steaming the rice cakes over a bed of pine needles (song means “pine trees” and pyon means “steamed rice cake”). [4. Garcia, Cathy Rose A. “Enjoy flavors of songpyeon.” The Korea Times. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/culture/2013/04/203_52806.html (accessed Nov. 20, 2014).]

Chuseok persists as an important means of preserving tradition and cultural identity in the face of the country’s rapid modernization.

How songpyeon looks is just as important as how it tastes. The cakes are molded into a half-moon shape to represent victory and good fortune. Families enjoy the cakes with each other and exchange them with neighbors to wish for good health and success. [5. Garcia, “Enjoy flavors of songpyeon.”] It is also said that women who make beautiful songpyeon will marry well and have beautiful daughters. To further enhance their appearance, the rice cakes are often flavored and dyed with natural ingredients—which vary depending on what’s available in the region—to make them green, yellow, orange, and pink. [6. Garcia.]

With family members traditionally working together to make songpyeon using fresh, local ingredients, the dish symbolizes the cultural value of family and the historical importance of agriculture in Korea. However, traditional Korean culture and society are being upended by the country’s rapid modernization. Despite being an agricultural economy for most of its history, intense industrialization beginning in the 1950s has resulted in agriculture accounting for only two percent of Korea’s GDP today. [7. Singh, Daljit & Siregar, Reza Y. ASEAN and Korea: trends in economic and labour relations. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (1997).] In fact, celebrating Chuseok may be the closest young Koreans come to even thinking about agriculture. As the prominence of agriculture has diminished, younger generations have left the countryside for the cities, and multi-generational households, once the norm, have become less and less common. [8. Song, Byung. The Rise of the Korean Economy. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, (1990).]

Yet, despite these shifts, Chuseok persists as an important holiday that continues to bring families together, reinforcing traditional Korean values and culture. And in many ways, the continued importance of Chuseok and songpyeon signifies resistance to the industrialization of Korea’s food system.

Stuffed Rice Cakes (Songpyeon)
Adapted from Korean Bapsang
Makes about 20 rice cakes

Ingredients

For the dough
2 cups frozen rice flour, thawed to room temperature, plus extra if needed
4 tablespoons plus 1–2 teaspoons boiling water

For the filling (makes enough for about 30 rice cakes)
½ cup roasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons sugar or to taste
1 tablespoon honey
pinch of salt

For steaming and finishing
4–5 ounces pine needles rinsed 2-3 times and dried (optional)
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Instructions

Make the dough

1. Sift the rice flour into a bowl. Add the boiling water, quickly stirring the mixture with a spoon.
2. Once combined, knead the dough for 5 minutes. After kneading, if the dough sticks to your hands or bowl, add more rice powder one tablespoon at a time. If the dough breaks or is too stiff, add more boiling water one teaspoon at a time.
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, you can make the filling.

Make the filling

Roughly grind the sesame seeds in a grinder or food processor and transfer to a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients to the ground sesame and mix well.

Assemble the rice cakes

1. Tear off a 1-inch ball of dough and roll it tightly into a ball between your palms.
2. Make a well in the ball by pressing into it with your thumb and slightly expanding the well outward into a shallow bowl-shaped round.
3. Place ½ teaspoon of filling in the well. Seal the cake by squeezing the edges tightly together. Lightly squeeze the whole rice cake in your palm to firm it up and mold it into a half-moon shape.
4. Repeat until all the dough/filling is used.

Steaming and finishing

1. Bring water to a boil in a steamer over high heat.
2. Place a thick layer of pine needles or a damp kitchen cloth in the steamer basket. Once the water is boiling, arrange the rice cakes in the steamer basket so that they are not touching. Cover with a thin layer of pine needles.
3. Place the lid on the steamer and cook for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with cold water.
4. Using a long-handled spoon or tongs, remove the rice cakes from the steamer and place them in the cold water to rinse. Remove the pine needles and transfer the rice cakes to a colander to drain.
5. Transfer the rice cakes to a large bowl and toss with the sesame oil. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Variations
To alter the color and flavor of the basic dough recipe above, use the following ingredients in place of boiling water:

• Green dough – 2 tablespoons of mugwort (the leaves of a bitter herb) or matcha/green tea powder and 5 tablespoons plus 1-2 teaspoons of boiling water.
• Yellow dough – 1/3 cup steamed or boiled and mashed kabocha squash and 1 tablespoon plus 1-2 teaspoons boiling water.
• Purple dough – 4 tablespoons plus 1-2 teaspoons boiling blueberry juice (½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries finely pureed with ½ cup water, strained and boiled)
• Pink dough – 4 tablespoons raspberry juice (½ cup fresh or frozen raspberries finely pureed with ½ cup water, strained and boiled).

Notes

• Frozen rice flour is available at most Asian markets in 6-pound bags.
• A step-by-step photo tutorial for assembling songpyeon is available here.

Experience South Korea’s food traditions on the Food Sovereignty Tour South Korea: Land, Food & Democracy, May 9–17, 2015.

On the Table is a regular food and recipe feature in Movements, the monthly newsletter of Food Sovereignty Tours.  Subscribe now to receive Movements and stay up to date on upcoming Food Sovereignty Tours.