[Sunday Culture] Old Sweets Like Okchundang on Japanese Ancestral Ritual Tables

Sugar Candy, Rakugan
Originating from Buddhism... Offered on Ancestral Tables or Buddhist Altars

It is the great national holiday, Chuseok. How is everyone spending the holiday? After a long time, families gather to share stories left untold and take a breather during the extended holiday.

When thinking of the Chuseok ancestral rites table, it seems very colorful. These days, Songpyeon comes in various colors, making it fun to look at. Of course, the most eye-catching colorful snack on the rites table is the traditional confectionery Okchundang. It doesn’t have a special taste, but it is a traditional snack that would feel incomplete without it when recalling holidays or ancestral rites tables.

Japan also has a hard sugar candy placed on ancestral ritual tables. It is called Rakugan (落雁), a sugar candy similar to Korea’s Okchundang.

Traditional Japanese confectionery Rakugan. (Photo by Cake Japan)

Rakugan looks at first glance like chalk. There are flower-shaped molds, neatly cut rectangular shapes, and various forms, but the surface is smooth and hard, which is characteristic. It might look like a soft wagashi (Japanese confection), but it is actually very hard. This is because Rakugan is a dried candy.

Rakugan is usually made by steaming and grinding grains such as rice, barley, or beans into powder, then kneading it with sugar or starch syrup, adding coloring, and molding it into shapes. When you put it in your mouth, it feels hard but crumbles softly, creating a unique texture. Although it seems to have little flavor, Rakugan is surprisingly famous enough to be counted among Japan’s three great confections. Recently, it has also been commonly served with tea and sweets.

Above all, Rakugan is often placed on holiday or ancestral ritual tables and Buddhist altars. There are various analyses about how it came to be used in rituals, but the story that it originated from Buddhism is the most plausible.

It is said to come from Mokugallana, one of Buddha Shakyamuni’s disciples. Mokugallana practiced Buddha’s teaching to serve food and offerings to many people, and he especially preferred sweet foods. Since sweet foods were luxury items at the time, sugar candies like Rakugan were used as a sign of sincerity and were considered suitable offerings to the deceased, which is how they began to appear on ritual tables.

Also, the white color of the sugar used in Rakugan symbolizes “departing with a pure soul as it is,” which is why Rakugan is placed on Buddhist altars.

Japan has unified all lunar calendar dates to the solar calendar and does not celebrate Chuseok at the same time as we do. Still, the sentiment of honoring someone is the same in every country. Wishing everyone a joyful Chuseok holiday.