New Year Traditions in Japan: mochitsuki

Mochitsuki is the process of pounding rice to make a glutinous mush of rice patties known as mochi. A large barrel is used to place the precooked rice. You can use normal rice, but you can also buy rice that is specifically designed for mochi. One person turns the stringy rice mixture, while two people take turns pounding it with a large and very heavy mallet. It is quite a labor intense process so mochitsuki is usually carried out by a group. Often a community, who take turns pounding the rice. 

Mochitsuki is often done in December in advance of the New Year, so that the mochi is ready to eat on New Year's day. But many places also do it on New Year's Day itself or even later in January. There are extra special mochitsuki events where they perform a dance as they ritually pound the rice. In my family, we pound the rice on New Year's Day as a family. There are usually at least 12 of us, but even still it takes a lot of time and physicality to pound the rice into mochi. Its a lot of fun though and quality family time.

We pound the rice in the daytime and then eat the mochi at night. It tastes even better as the fruit of our labor! Have you ever tried mochitsuki before?