December 22nd marked the winter solstice,
the 22nd out of the 24 seasonal divisions, known as dongji in Korean. It marks
the shortest day and longest night of the year.
There is a saying that if you don’t eat patjuk [red bean porridge] during dongji you age easily, are
susceptible to ailments, and that evil spirits will prevail in your life. That’s why people eat patjuk. It involves boiling down red beans and then
adding small rice cakes known as ‘danja’ or ‘saeal.’
Just as they eat patjuk in the South, up
north people enjoy it in much the same way, the main difference being that if the day falls within the lunar calendar date of November
10th, they refer to it as ‘aegi dongji’ [child dongji] and eat red bean songpyeon rice cakes instead of
patjuk, because of the belief that the porridge dish brings misfortune to
children.
In the North, people are said to have
started eating patjuk on this day to cleanse themselves of the year’s
bad luck. Regardless of how difficult things might be, each household prepares
patjuk with danja to be consumed by everyone present.
Some families spend the longest night of
the year with a potful of patjuk, eating it into the early morning hours. To make this
dish, families prepare a day ahead, pounding rice flour to make danja and
boiling red beans to make enough porridge to last the entire day.
In the South, it’s
hard to find families that make their own patjuk at home anymore. The dish is
readily available at porridge specialty shops for the entire family to enjoy.
In North Korea, however, family members sit around chatting and preparing danja–for
some it’s a day that feels profoundly more plentiful than others.
The day before dongji feels like a special
holiday with the sound of pestles clanking against mortars ringing out from
each home. Rice flour can be produced at mills in the North, but with the
frequent black outs, and no indication of when power will be restored, many
choose to pound their own rice flour at home. What used to be part of South Korea’s culture in the ‘60s and ‘70s still remains intact just above the border.
Recently though, some defectors who have
recently come from North Korea have said the practice of eating patjuk is
seeing some changes. Unlike in the past when people consumed patjuk and
songpyeon rice cakes, these days, red bean porridge and frozen pollack soup
have become the new trend.
Frozen pollack is a fish that is relatively easy to get your hands on in the South, but in the North it’s considered a specialty. As most lack refrigerators at home, it
usually appears at the markets only during the winter. One fish goes for roughly
7,000 [0.88 USD] to 8,000 KPW [1 USD], while other common fish such as atka mackerel, herring, and
sole cost about 3,000 [0.38 USD] to 5,000 KPW [0.63 USD].
The reason why North Koreans have come to
seek out this fish is because it is notoriously difficult to catch, and therefore considered a
precious food after which nothing should be left behind after consuming. People also believe that by eating the
fish’s eyes their own eyesight will improve. With its expensive price tag, many have
come to think that they must consume the fish on dongji to bring in good
fortune for the New Year.
Regardless of fleeting trends, patjuk is
still the shared dish favored on the day of dongji, and as this author once took part in this tradition while in North Koreas, today brings back memories of sitting around with family enjoying a hot bowl of patjuk together at home.
