In all cultures, cuisine can be classified into two different categories: everyday food and occasional food. Everyday food refers to the food eaten daily during meals. It is usually simple, wholesome, and not very expensive. Occasional food refers to anything eaten as a snack or a delicacy, as well as the food consumed during special holidays or festivals and at ritual ceremonies. This food is usually more expensive, more difficult to prepare, particular to a specified occasion and much loved by the people.

In Korea, the daily fare is simple. Consisting mostly of plain rice, a soup, and a few side dishes, the menu follows the seasons carefully. Festival food, on the other hand, is far more complicated and intricate. Traditionally, everyone looked forward to holidays because they were times when special food was served in order to celebrate a special day and effectively supplement the regular diet.

HOLIDAY FOOD

Whereas plain boiled rice is central to daily dishes, it is not so with holiday dishes. When rice is served during holidays, it is usually glutinous rice or some other unusual form. Rice cakes, red bean porridge, and glutinous rice are some of the main items in an occasional dish. During ancestral memorial services or at parties, ordinary rice is consumed along with many special food items, such as rice cakes, fruits, and various side dishes.

Traditionally, the food eaten during holidays is determined by the occasion, the season, and the customs. For example, on New Year’s Day (Seollal), rice cake soup called tteokguk is served. Consisting of broth with thinly sliced rice cakes, tteokguk is believed to grant the consumer luck for the forthcoming year. On the first full moon (Daeboreum), which falls on the 15th of the first lunar month, Koreans eat five-grain rice (ogokbap), a mixture of any five of the following: rice, millet, soybeans, red beans, barley, barnyard millet, and sorghum. Also, there is a custom of cracking nuts with one’s teeth on this day. This practice is believed to help keep one’s teeth healthy for the year. During the Dano festival (the fifth day of the fifth lunar month), which celebrates spring and farming, people eat rice cakes made with mugwort paste. On Chuseok (the harvest festival), one of the biggest holidays in Korea, which takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month under a full moon, people enjoy a variety of traditional foods and special rice cakes such as songpyeon. Songpyeon are half moon-shaped rice cakes that contain different kinds of sweet or semi-sweet fillings. On the winter solstice (Dongji), people eat porridge made of red beans, called patjuk, which is believed to ward off evil spirits.

Left: Tteokguk (rice cake soup). It is said you do not turn one year older unless you eat this dish on New Year’s Day. Right: Songpyeon (half moon-shaped rice cakes). Served on Chuseok, the autumn harvest festival. As the half moon eventually becomes a full moon, the shape reflects hope for a better future.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF HOLIDAY FOOD

Korean holiday food includes rice cake soup, dumpling soup, cakes made of glutinous rice, rice cakes steamed on a layer of pine needles, dimes made of five-grain rice, rice gruel prepared with red beans, sweet rice drink, and seasoned dried vegetables. These foods are still very popular with most Koreans.

In addition, nuts are eaten on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to guard against boils for the year. The nuts include pine nuts, walnuts, peanuts, and chestnuts, and they contain a high concentration of the fatty acid alphatocopherol, which is necessary in the cold winter.

Together with the nuts, nine seasoned dried vegetables are eaten on the same day, providing a good supplement of cellulose. The five-grain dishes consist of a mixture of any five of the following: rice, millet, soybeans, red beans, barley, barnyard millet, and sorghum. They contain vitamin B1, calcium, iron, and cellulose. Beans, especially, are high in protein and thus offer a supplement of amino acids lacking in rice. Boiled rice with other cereals reduces the quantity of sugar in the blood.

Ogokbap (five-grain rice): This dish used to be served at the end of winter on the holiday of Daeboreum. Thanks to its rich nutritional value, it is now popular with increasingly health-conscious Koreans.

Patjuk (red bean porridge): Not only is this a healthy dish, but its red color was once believed to scare away evil spirits.

Such traditions of consuming certain kinds of holiday dishes on different occasions are not the result of personal choice or temporary desire. These traditions evolved quite naturally over a long period of time.

There are good reasons for preparing a specific kind of food at a specific time of the year, and many of the traditions inevitably arose as a result of seasonal and agricultural activities. In summer, when barley and wheat are harvested, boiled barley (instead of rice) and noodles are usually consumed. In autumn, rice and foxtail millet are harvested, so they are the typical ingredients in food eaten in that season. The same applies to the side dishes. In spring, wild mountain greens are eaten as side dishes, while in summer vegetables grown in fields, such as lettuce and cabbage, are consumed.

Nuts were eaten on Daeboreum. It is believed that cracking nuts with your teeth on that day keeps you safe for a year—and keeps your teeth healthy.

KOREAN HOLIDAY FOOD

Until recently, Korea was a primarily agricultural society, so most of its festival customs are tied to farming. Koreans of old used a lunar calendar divided into 24 periods; each period lasted 15 days. Throughout this calendar, there are several festivals during which tasty food is prepared as a sacrificial offering to ancestors and as a meal to share with family and neighbors. This food is called jeolsik. The two biggest feast days in the Korean calendar are the autumn harvest holiday of Chuseok and Seollal, the Lunar New Year.

SEOLLAL

(New Year’s Day)

1st day of 1st month

Tteokguk (rice cake soup), yakgwa (honey cakes)

DAEBOREUM

(First full moon)

1st full moon of 1st month

Ogokbap (rice made of five grains), yaksik (glutinous rice), bureom (nuts)

SAMJINNAL

(Celebrating the coming of spring)

3rd day of 3rd month

Hwajeon (rice pancakes), dugyeonju (azalea wine)

HANSIK

(Start of farming season)

105 days after winter solstice

Cold food only: Ssuktteok (mugwort cake), ssukdanja (mugwort dumplings), ssuktang (mugwort soup)

CHOPAIL

(Buddha’s Birthday)

8th day of 4th month

Different types of tteok, dumplings, special dishes made of fish

DANO

(Celebration of spring and farming)

5th day of 5th month

Varieties of tteok, herb rice cakes

YUDU

(Water greeting)

15th day of 6th month

Noodles

SAMBOK

(Hottest days of the summer)

Between 6th and 7th month

Samgyetang (chicken-ginseng soup), bosintang (dog meat soup)

CHILSEOK

(Meeting day of Gyeonwoo and Jingnyeo in Korean folk tale)

7th day of 7th month

Miljeonbyeong (wheat pancake), milguksu (wheat noodles)

BAEKJUNG

(Time when hundreds of fruits and grains become ripe)

15th day of 7th month

Food made of potato, flour, and wheat along with a variety of wild vegetables

CHUSEOK

(Harvest festival)

15th day of 8th month

Songpyeon, torantang (taro soup)

DONGJI

(Winter solstice)

11th month

Patjuk (Red bean porridge)

SEOTDAL GEUMEUM

New Year’s Eve

Food for the next day, Seollal

FUNCTIONS OF HOLIDAY DISHES

New Year’s Day (Seollal) is about paying respect to ancestors. The 15th of the first lunar month is a day for offering tribute to the village gods, and the Dano festival is a day of wishing for the crops to grow well. Chuseok, in August, is a day for offering the various freshly harvested crops to the gods before consuming them. As such, these special lunar days are unique in the year, occasions for special rituals and games. Taking a rest from everyday work, people hold ancestral memorial services or perform sacrificial rites for the village god, involving the whole village. People put on new clothes, eat delicious holiday food, and visit their relatives and neighbors to exchange greetings. Naturally, the food cannot but be different from everyday food. There are several reasons for preparing a special holiday dish on a traditional holiday.

Ceremonial Need

First, the significance of the holiday can be brought to life and its function indicated by the special food prepared. Holidays such as Seollal and Chuseok are for worshiping ancestors, praying for a rich harvest, or performing exorcisms to prevent tragedies. In order to properly perform these holiday ceremonies, all sorts of food offerings are prepared. On the 15th of the first lunar month, rice with five different grains is served to bring about a bumper crop, and on the winter solstice red beans are cooked and mashed into porridge to drive the ghosts away. In order to bring the tradition of the holiday alive, a dish appropriate to the occasion is necessary.

Nutritional Supplement

Second, by making and eating a holiday dish with the crops and greens grown in the given season, the consumers receive a supplement of nutrients not obtained from everyday food. All foods are most nutritious when consumed during the season in which they are harvested. Accordingly, holiday food helps us to stay healthy. For instance, there’s the eating of rice cakes made of mugwort paste during the Dano festival. Mugwort is a wild green plant known to give one energy; it is widely used as a precious herb in traditional Oriental medicine. It is also said that its effects are best during the Dano festival. Therefore, it is customary to pick mugwort during the Dano festival, dry it to make medicine, and use its tender leaves to make rice cakes. By observing the traditions of eating freshly harvested rice on Chuseok, making rice cakes and rice wine to go with it, and consuming various kinds of fresh autumn fruits and vegetables, Koreans eat every kind of food grown in autumn.

Revitalizing Daily Life

Third, by eating delicious food that is not usually eaten and that is reserved for that day, one can enjoy the holiday in a festive mood. Traditional holidays provide relief from the tedious daily chores of life and revitalize us. Good clothes that are not usually worn on ordinary days are put on, games are played, and delicious food is consumed. In this way, the holiday is truly enjoyed. The delicious food and rice wine offered at weddings and on other special occasions also heighten the festive mood and make the day feel special. Various kinds of rice cakes and wine, fruit, and meat are prepared in addition to rice.

Pungmulnori, a rural dance almost universal to Korea’s farm villages.

CHARYESANG: TABLE SETTING FOR ANCESTRAL RITES

One of the most important of Korea’s traditional rites, Korea’s Confucian ancestral rite required the preparation of much ancestral food, the table placement of which followed strict rules handed down over generations.

On the table prepared for an ancestral ceremony on Lunar New Year, the ancestral tablet is placed to the north. The dishes, meanwhile, are usually placed in five rows. Instead of rice, rice cake soup is served.

On the first row is placed a wine glass and rice cake soup. The soup is placed on the left and the wine glass on the right. The chopsticks and a plate are placed in the middle.

The second row contains fried foods. From left to right are fried meats, fried seafood, and fried tofu and vegetables. With fish, the head faces the east and the tail the west.

Stews are placed in the third row. Meat stews are placed on the left, vegetable and tofu stews in the middle, and fish stews on the right.

In the fourth row are the side dishes. Dried seafood is placed at the left end, followed by vegetables, soy sauce, and kimchi, with sikhye (rice punch) or sugeonggwa (persimmon punch) placed at the right end. The only form of kimchi served is water kimchi made from radish.

On the fifth row, fruit is placed. Fruits are always placed in odd numbers. Red fruits are placed to the east, while white fruits are placed to the west. From left to right, there are jujubes, chestnuts, pears, and persimmon.

When preparing a table for ancestral rites, first the utensils and plates are put on the table, while the incense burner is placed on a small table in front of the food table. Underneath that table is a small bowl of ceremonial wine and a bowl with sand, into which the liquor is poured. When preparing food for an ancestral rite, no red chili pepper powder or garlic is used.

CEREMONIAL FOOD

Being born into this world has always been considered an act of grace and a mystical phenomenon. The belief that humans are born into the world by divine will was common in ancient times because people wanted an explanation for the mystery. Korea was no exception. Through the inculcation of a divine dimension, human life came to be regarded as very precious. Accordingly, people marked special events and gave them special meaning.

From the time one is born to the day one dies, he or she must pass through several noteworthy rites of passage. These rites of passage are accompanied by special dishes. Korea has been part of the Confucian cultural zone from early on, so the influence of Confucianism is felt in all parts of Korean life. In Confucian cultures, rites of passage and ceremonies are considered very important. Some important ceremonies include coming-of-age rites, weddings, funerals, and ancestral rites.

Tables for rites of passage include ones for happy events, beginning with the Samsinsang (prepared before birth to pray for a smooth delivery), baegilsang (for the first 100 days), dolsang (for the first birthday), gwallyesang (for the coming-of-age), hollyesang (for weddings), keunsang (for guests of honor), and hoegapsang (for 60th birthdays), as well as ones for ancestral ceremonies like the jesa and charye (see more).

Doljabi: This custom, held on a baby’s first birthday, is said to determine the future of the child.

Given the importance Confucianism places on filial piety, ancestral ceremonies were strictly observed, and the preparation of the table was carried out with great care and attention to long-established rules and traditions.

Birth

Just before delivery, three bowls of rice and three bowls of soup are set on a table. Helpers rub their hands in supplication to Samsin or Sansin, the goddess of childbirth, who governs pregnancy, safe birth, and child rearing. Samsin is also called Samsirang or Samsin halmeoni (Grandmother Samsin) depending on the region. The table for Samsin includes plain white rice, seaweed soup, and water drawn from a well at daybreak. Then, someone, usually the grandmother, prays for the mother’s health and the baby’s longevity, rubbing her hands while she recites. After a woman has delivered her baby, plain white rice and seaweed soup are served to her.

On the third day after delivery, the mother washes herself with boiled sagebrush water and washes the baby with warm water for the first time. Three bowls of plain white rice and three bowls of seaweed soup are prepared and set on a table for Samsin, and again a prayer is recited. It is only from this third day that others can see the newborn.

Miyeok guk, seaweed soup

Baegil (100th Day)

The hundredth day after the delivery is called baegil and a special ceremonial feast is held to celebrate. In the morning, plain white rice and seaweed soup are prepared for Samsin, and a prayer is recited for the last time. After the mother has eaten the rice and soup, the food for the banquet is arranged on a table.

Different kinds of rice cakes are served for baegil: steamed rice cakes, which represent purity and cleanliness; glutinous kaoliang rice cakes and glutinous rice cakes coated with mashed red beans, which represent endurance and strong will; rice cakes steamed on a layer of pine needles, which represent generosity; and stuffed rice cakes, which represent the full mind. Each cake is made for longevity, purity, and divinity. It is important that at least one hundred people partake of the cakes so that the baby will enjoy a long life.

The neighbors and relatives should in turn present rice and string, as they represent longevity and good fortune. The baegil party is to bless the baby and to prevent any disasters that may hinder the baby’s growth.

Doljanchi

The first birthday party is called doljanchi and is more elaborate than the baegil party. The main foods served are rice cakes and fruits. The same four kinds of rice cakes as for baegil are prepared, especially the steamed rice cake and the glutinous rice cake. Other cakes of cinnamon bark and steamed rice balls rolled in various colored powders or steamed in different layers are also served. This steamed layered cake, called mujigae tteok (rainbow rice cake), is made in the hope that the baby will have a wide range of accomplishments, as varied as the colors of a rainbow.

One special custom observed during the doljanchi is the doljabi. On a table, various items are spread out, such as rice, rice cakes, cookies, money, thread, books, paper, a writing brush, and a bow and arrow. For girls, a pair of scissors and a ruler take the place of the bow and arrow. The baby is formally dressed in traditional costume and encouraged to take hold of anything he or she likes. According to the item, the baby’s future is foretold. Money or rice indicates future wealth. Thread represents longevity, and books or a brush represent scholarship.

The dol food is also shared with relatives and neighbors, who usually give presents with blessings. The presents include thread, clothing, money, rings, spoons and chopsticks, bowls, and toys.

Every birthday is celebrated by sharing food with relatives and neighbors. As in the case of baegil and dol, tables for Samsin and for the god who takes care of the house are prepared in the main living room, and prayers are offered for longevity and good fortune. The person celebrating his or her birthday eats the food placed on the table for Samsin.

Mujigae tteok, rainbow rice cake

Coming-of-Age

According to the Yeseo (the Book of Etiquette), the coming-of-age ceremony is held between the ages of fifteen and twenty for boys and at fifteen for girls. For boys, the parents must not have lost any of their parents or close senior relatives during the previous year; otherwise, the ceremony is postponed. Traditionally, Korean boys of fifteen years were supposed to have a knowledge of the Analects of Confucius and the Book of Filial Piety. At this age, the boy is expected to understand the proper manners, ways, and teachings of the sages. It was considered important that the ceremony be performed after the boy had learned these things.

The ceremony is usually held in the first month of the lunar calendar. Three days before the ceremony, the master of the family announces the event to the family’s ancestral tablet hall and chooses the officiator of the ceremony.

The food for the ceremonial table includes wine, dried spiced meat, and boiled meat, all of which is relatively simple. But other food such as noodles, rice cakes, other meat, wine, and fruits are prepared for relatives and visitors.

Traditional coming-of-age ceremony

Weddings

Traditionally, marriage can only take place when the couple has been recognized and accepted as suitable by the families. This is considered extremely important: not only do the two individuals marry, but the two families are also brought together in a close and lasting relationship.

In traditional Korean society, the act of marriage consists of four separate processes and is based on the book Inquiry into the Four Ceremonies.

The agreement to marry is the first step in the marriage process. The right ages for marriage as prescribed in the book Etiquette are between sixteen and thirty for boys and between fourteen and twenty for girls. At first, the views of both families are communicated through a matchmaker. Only after the girl’s family agrees to the marriage can those involved move on to the second step.

When both families agree to the marriage, the family of the boy sends a letter proposing the marriage to the girl’s family, along with another letter in which the saju (“four pillars,” the year, month, day, and hour of birth) of the bridegroom-to-be are written. This letter is folded in five, and the saju are written in the middle. The letter is put in an envelope on which the saju characters are written. Then the envelope is sealed, wrapped in a cloth, and sent to the girl’s family by the matchmaker.

Weddings were held in the bride’s yard or house. The groom traveled by horse to the bride’s house and, after the wedding ceremony, took his wife in a palanquin (sedan chair) to his parents’ house to live. The bride and groom wore formal court costumes for the wedding ceremony. Ordinary people were permitted to wear the luxurious clothes only on their wedding day. Traditionally, the groom’s family would carry a wedding chest filled with gifts for the bride’s family. Wedding ducks are a symbol for a long and happy marriage. Cranes are a symbol of long life and may be represented on the woman’s sash.

Traditional wedding ceremony

The presentation of the new bride to the bridegroom’s parents for the first time is now called pyebaek. The bride offers wine and slices of dried beef or steamed chicken as a side dish. The mother-in-law then casts Chinese dates or chestnuts at the bride, wishing for the prosperity of the offspring of the new couple.

Sixtieth Birthday Anniversaries

A person’s sixtieth birthday is called hoegap. Celebrations are usually organized by the person’s offspring. The banquet is magnificent. The main table, called mangsang, is placed in front of the parents, and another big table, the gyojasang, is separately prepared for the parents as well. The offspring fill a cup with wine, offer it to the parents, and bow two by two. Meanwhile, there is dancing and music, and a Korean drinking song is sung by invited performers. The senior guests are carefully looked after and served wine and side dishes. The hoegap is also called hwangap, hwangapyeon, or suyeon.

Main table for hoegap

Funerals

Funerals are the most serious ceremonies because they deal with the dead and their spirits. The funeral ceremony is a complicated process starting from the time of death and continuing for up to two years. After that, there are the yearly memorial ceremonies.

Fixed rules for arranging the offerings must be followed. The tablets should be placed to the north. Close to the tablets, a cup of wine, cooked rice and soup, seasoned meat on skewers, soup again, seasoned vegetables, and fruits are placed.

Facing the table, there are some other rules for the arrangement of offerings on it.

1.Red fruits are placed to the east and white ones to the west.

2.Chinese dates, chestnuts, pears, and persimmons (fresh or dried) are placed, in that order, from west to east in the front row.

3.Skewered fish is placed to the east and skewered meat to the west.

4.Dried slices of meat seasoned with spices are placed to the west and sikhye is placed to the east.

Traditional funeral ceremony