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Mochitsuki Festival to end Christmas in the Marianas
Japan’s Mochitsuki Festival will highlight the final Saturday of celebration of the Christmas in the Marianas Festival on Dec. 26 at the Paseo de Marianas in Garapan.
Mochitsuki is a Japanese ceremony for making rice cakes made of mochigom—glutinous short-grain japonica rice. Participants pound the rice into a paste that will be molded into various shapes.
The mochi rice cake is a traditional food prepared before the Japanese New Year.
The festival will start at 6pm where rice pounding and dance performances by the Saipan Awaodori Team will greet local and foreign visitors that will join the event.
Dances and other forms of musical entertainment will also be featured up to 10pm.
Last Saturday, a young K-Pop dance group from the Korean Association of Saipan joined in the festivities.
Koblerville Elementary School, despite placing second in the Christmas carol contest in the elementary division, had the most unique performance. They sang a medley of Christmas carol mashed up with OMI’s Cheerleader and Soul Sister by American rock band Train, changing the lyrics to match the holiday season.
KES administration officer Kevin Adachi said that fourth and fifth graders wrote the lyrics that replaced the original versions of Cheerleader and Soul Sister.
“We held a competition among the students where they must submit the lyrics that will be adapted and replace the original lyrics of Cheerleader and Soul Sister. The winning lyrics were used in the presentation,” said Adachi.
“So it was really the students who wrote the new lyrics with the guidance of the teachers,” he added.
KES also topped the Christmas costumes category and finished third in the float competition.
