Open the mirror, eat the cakes
Jan 11th, 2008 by Ad Blankestijn
Today is Kagami-biraki, “opening of the mirror”, the day that the rice cakes (mochi) that were displayed during New Year as an offer to the gods, are broken into small pieces and eaten in shiruko (a sweet soup made of azuki beans) or as zoni (mochi in New Year soup). To eat them in some sort of soup is necessary as the rice cakes have become hard in the two weeks they have been on display.
When on display, the rice cakes sit on a stand, a smaller cake on top of a larger one, and that again topped by a small daidai orange. The flat rice cakes resemble traditional copper mirrors, which led to the name of the custom. And as words like “breaking” have a negative meaning, the positive “opening” is used - as if opening a road to the future, as the custom of kagami-biraki is supposed to bring good fortune in the New Year.
Unfortunately, that is not the case for all participants in the ritual. Every year, at least a handful of elderly people choke on the soft, sticky rice cakes. Even when you make the pieces very small, they still tend to stick in the throat. This year, the mochi death toll already stands at five…
