Our people have eaten this gruel on the winter solstice.
So, they think that they must eat this gruel this day.
Regarding this gruel, there are some mysterious stories but in fact, people regarded this day as the first day of next year, the great holiday and this day they cooked the rice gruel with red beans mashed and strained.
The poet of the late Koryo era, Ri Sek wrote the following poem: “On the winter solstice, cook the rice and red bean porridge, add the honey into it and eat it.”
In this gruel, unlike other gruels the dumplings made of the powdered glutinous rice were added into it. So it was called the gruel made of red beans with rice dumplings in it.
When cooking this gruel, the people used to put the especially big dumplings into a bowl. They thought that the boy with this dumpling could have the greatest luck that year.
So, the mothers tried to make the big dumplings given to each child evenly.
The people of the most areas liked to eat the hot gruel while blowing into it but the people of Gangwon province liked to eat the frozen gruel as the night time meal.