Songpyeon Making Workshop

September 11, Sunday – Bjun, Eileen, Ryan and I together with a few Germans – Patrick, Thomas, Fedelike, Eva, Anja and Fenja went to Hongbeop-sa for the Songpyun Making event. This was our second visit to the temple. There were more people there this time; most of them are foreigners from America and Canada, teaching English in Korea.

Songpyeon is a type of rice cake specially made to celebrate Chuseok. Chuseok originates from the Silla dynasty, one of the old kingdoms of Korea. China’s influence was very strong at that time. It is an annual event celebrated on August 15 of the lunar calendar. However, it is different from the moon cake festival. It is more like a thanks giving day in Korea. During this day, they will go to the graveyards of their ancestors to offer them food as a way of thanking them for helping with the harvest. They will also cut weeds which have grown during the hot summer days. These customs have been considered as a natural duty of the descendants to their ancestors. Other than the decease, the other family members will gather and have meals together. Chuseok is made of red bean paste, chestnut paste, jujube paste and so on. The outer part is made of rice dough. It is believe that Songpyeon represents the beauty of their hearts. It is also believe that those who can make a beautiful Songpyeon means that they will have a beautiful baby.

The demonstration was very funny because the translator, Cookie is not doing a great job being a translator. Our attention was focusing more on Cookie’s name tag. “sphere” was pronounced as “spear”. Throughout the demonstration, we were wondering why they would want to make the dough in the shape of a spear. We were quite blurring after the demonstration because we couldn’t see it properly. One of the helpers, Ye Yim helped us out with it. I think that she is actually more interested on getting to know Ryan than demonstrating to us. We were trying to be a bit creative and come out with some weird looking Songpyeon. Overall, they looked good.

After that, we went to the steamer there to steam them. A layer of pine needles were put on the steamer before putting the Songpyeon. After it was done, they splashed some cold water on it and mixed them with sesame oil. We wanted to get back our own Songpyeon but couldn’t recognize them as they mixed them up when steaming it. The Songpyeon doesn’t look very delicious after they were cooked. We were having some doubts on its taste. Luckily it turned out to be okay. Some fruits and another type of rice cake were served as well.

After that, we had a photo section and then departed back to the subway station with the temple’s van.