Festive traditions26 Oct 20262 min read

Ciba, shared work and New Year gatherings

Rice, wooden mallets and helping hands turn food preparation into a gathering. Local New Year customs reveal different sides of life in Xiangxi.

Xiangxi Journal · Culture notes

Making ciba with wooden mallets outside the shop in Xiangtan — Ciba being made at the Xiangtan shop. This is a shop photograph, illustrating the making process.

Food made with helping hands

A 2024 report by Fenghuang County's local media centre records people gathering in Guantianshan village to prepare for New Year, including making ciba. The account connects this work with meeting relatives and friends and celebrating the harvest.^[1]

The photograph outside our shop records the work itself: wooden mallets raised above the mortar, and people attending to the food. Those movements add a sense of making to a finished plate of ciba.

Different ways of marking the year

The national intangible cultural heritage entry for Tujia New Year in Yongshun describes preparations, festive meals and visits to relatives among its activities. Such local accounts help place a food within a broader festive setting.^[2]

Memories of ciba may be connected with a particular village celebration, a Tujia festive tradition, or a family kitchen. Keeping the location and context visible makes those stories easier to understand.

From a gathering to a familiar bite

We can linger over the scene: a mallet comes down, the rice cake takes shape, and food is brought to the table after the work is done. A feeling of togetherness can live in details like these.

Back in everyday life, we can keep collecting photographs and serving ideas from the shop. There are many more tables, places and family memories through which the story of ciba can be told.