Dishes for Jongwoldaeborum
Festive dishes for the day include ogokpap, yakpap, pokssam, noodles, dried herb dishes, and ear-quickening liquor.
Ogokpap is the boiled rice mixed with four other cereals, typically foxtail millet, sorghum, bean and adzuki bean.
Yakpap, medicinal rice, is prepared with glutinous rice and honey as major ingredients, and also jujube, dried persimmon, chestnut, pine nuts, sesame oil and others.
Nine kinds of cooked dried herbs are good for not getting ill from the summer heat.
Koreans of old times favoured these dishes, because such balanced diet would help the intake of various nutrients for health promotion.
They ate noodles at lunch the day before, wishing that they would live as long as the noodle strips.
A cup of cold liquor is taken at breakfast on the folk holiday, and it is called ear-quickening liquor.
Yakpap
Yakpap is a special dish for the First Full Moon Day (by the lunar calendar).
As it is prepared with glutinous rice, honey, chestnut, jujube and other ingredients with medicinal properties, yakpap is prized for its high nutritive value and effects in restoring health and vigour.
There are two opinions about the origin of yakpap.
One is that yakpap is a boiled rice with medicinal properties (in Korean yak means medicine and pap boiled rice), and the other is that a dish with honey in it is often named by affixing yak to it.
Old documents read that yakpap was the dish served on the First Full Moon Day during the periods of the Three Kingdoms and the feudal Joson dynasty, and the one for the first fourth day of January in the days of Koryo.
However, it has been a long custom of eating yakpap for January holiday.
It was the festive dish for the First Full Moon Day, a must for various ceremonial feasts, and a special dish for welcoming guests.
Old documents recorded it in different names, such as hyangpap (fragrant rice) and japgwaban (boiled rice mixed with various fruits), for its unique taste and aroma.
Yakpap was called koryoban in the neighbouring countries and prized as a rare dish.
