Heralding the New Year always means celebrating with a lot of food. In Japan, however, festivities took a tragic turn as many choked on mochi, a sticky rice cake traditionally served during the holiday. At least nine reported deaths have prompted Japanese officials to urge people to eat the treats slowly.
Essential to the holiday menu for New Year, mochi is either grilled or cooked with sweet beans or in broth. Due to their glutinous nature, they can get stuck in throats and block breathing.
By Jan. 2, at least 128 people have been rushed to hospitals after chomping down on mochi and choking.
The Tokyo Fire Department added that within the first three days of the year, 18 have been taken to city hospitals already, with three male fatalities. As such, the department reminded people to cut up mochi in smaller pieces to facilitate chewing and to masticate the food slowly. Also, learning first aid was advised.
Aside from the deaths in Tokyo, three people also died in the Chiba prefecture, while the Nagasaki, Aomori and Osaka prefectures also reported a death each. In Nagasaki, an 80-year-old man died when he choked on free mochi served at a Shinto shrine.
Giving out or selling mochi and other treats is a custom in temples and shrines in Japan as part of welcoming the New Year. With the New Year as the most important holiday for the Japanese, dishes served have symbolic meaning.
Mochi, for one, is considered the concentrated version of rice, food that is revered in all of Japan. It was treated like a luxury item in the past because mochi-mai, the type of rice it is made from, had low yields compared to the uruchi-mai, the more standard rice served in meals in the country.
First records of mochi being served during New Year was from the Heian period, where imperial nobles thought the treats, as they were presented in long strands, symbolized long life. Dried mochi was hard and eating it was believed to toughen teeth, which is important to good health.
For the first three to seven days of the New Year, households also don't consume starch aside from mochi. This also means a break for a household's cook as they do not have to cook rice for the festivities, which can be a significant chore. Some people have broken tradition, though, eating regular rice as early as the second day of the New Year.
