Legend has it that in the past, hardworking cows would cry silently when they saw people eating Ciba happily. When people saw the tears of the oxen who worked harder than themselves, they quickly gave them Ciba, made two big Ciba, hung them on the two corners of the oxen, and led them to the water to look in the mirror. When the cow saw the bus on the corner, the cow smiled happily.
In order to express people's gratitude for their work, people give some cows every year. Later, people took the early October of the lunar calendar as the "Cow King's Day" every year, and the custom of making Ciba to respect cows has been handed down.
In Huizhou, Guangdong, October (the first day of October in the lunar calendar) is the birthday of a cow, and Huizhou people call it "the birthday of the cow god". At this time, it is already the slack season. In order to comfort the family's hard work all the year round, every October, almost every household in Huizhou rural area will do it themselves.
After making Ciba, first, wrap some lettuce leaves and feed them to all the cows at home, which is not only to comfort them for a year's hard work, but also to celebrate their birthdays. After the cows are finished, the whole family, old and young, will sit around and taste rice cakes to celebrate the harvest. This custom gradually spread to cities. Every October, residents in cities imitate rural customs and make their own Ciba.
Even Guangxu's "Huizhou Fuzhi" records: "In October (the first day of the twelfth lunar month), the city made rice to recommend ancestors, and the countryside hung horns to make contributions with powder food." The "powder food" referred to in it is Ciba. In the Qing Dynasty, Boluo Village and Ciba were also called "Fenci". On the first day of October, Daniel and calf are treated differently. Daniel paste the horn, and calf paste the forehead.
On the day of "October Dynasty", farmers not only rewarded cows, but also made cakes with newly cut rice to celebrate the harvest and treat the gods, praying for good weather, prosperous livestock and bumper crops in the coming year. Because glutinous rice is a late-maturing variety, other late-maturing rice is harvested around Chongyang, but late-maturing varieties such as glutinous rice are harvested at the end of September in the lunar calendar. Farmers will pound the freshly cut glutinous rice into rice, roll it into powder, steam it into cakes, and make it into hairpins. The most distinctive cake food of "October Dynasty" is of course Ciba.
Ciba-wrapping: First, mash the steamed glutinous rice into a sticky ball with a stone pestle, or wrap the glutinous rice with a cloth and press it into a ball with a big board. Stir-fry the harvested peanuts, mix in the cooked sesame powder and white sugar, squeeze out a small piece of glutinous rice balls and spread it flat on your hand, put the stuffing on it, then close it and pinch it tightly.
As the agricultural proverb says, "October is full of enthusiasm." . Here, "burning" is a very vivid Hakka dialect, and "rolling" means rolling like a cart wheel, which means rolling up glutinous rice balls with chopsticks, and rolling around like a cart wheel with sesame seeds, peanuts and sugar; "Burning" means steaming. Eating Ciba requires scalding, beating and fighting (comparison) to be enjoyable and to appreciate the fun of farmers' "October cooking".
Eating Ciba on the first day of October also has a health-preserving effect. The main material of Ciba is glutinous rice, also called glutinous rice. Because it is sticky and slippery, it is often used to make flavor snacks, which is deeply loved by everyone. Glutinous rice is rich in B vitamins, which can warm the spleen and stomach and tonify the middle qi. Can relieve spleen and stomach deficiency and cold, loss of appetite, abdominal distension and diarrhea. Glutinous rice has astringent effect and has a good therapeutic effect on frequent urination and spontaneous sweating.