At Mitsuwa, New Year starts with a pound, not a bang

Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights celebrated the New Year with mochi tsuki, or rice pounding.

The traditional ceremony involves pounding steamed glutinous rice in a large pestal into a paste until no grains are recognizable. Then the material is shaped into rice cakes.

While families in Japan might do this at home, many people who live in the United States do not have the equipment because it is very heavy and usually not sold in this country, said a spokesman for the market.

People eat the rice cakes year around, but like to have them especially for the New Year, a big holiday in Japan.

At Mitsuwa observers took turns pounding and were given samples of the sticky mochi with sweet red bean paste or dusted with soybean flour. During the pounding the crowd yells "yoisho," appropriate when someone is working hard.

Pounding the rice is traditionally a two-person job that requires mallets to be wielded with rhythm to avoid hitting the hands of the second person who is turning the rice by hand, according to a Web site of the Japanese American National Museum.

It says that Mochi tsuki is an all-day event "which requires many hands, long hours, and physical labor," but also is meant to be a time of socializing with friends and family.