Photo by sebilden
Bread in Bakery, Nothing better than smelling a fresh loaf baking. Bread happens to be one of my favorite additions to a good meal. Whether it be sliced bread, cornbread, fresh rolls, it all makes a meal complete. Although bread is sometimes quite high in calories, which is not good for my diet, I still love it.
I did a post a while back on 15 Interesting Food Facts to Gobble Up which gave some pretty interesting facts on food items that most of you probably haven’t heard of before. But I wanted to cover some superstitious beliefs and myths that are associated with bread, I just found some of these superstitions quite nifty.
Myths and Superstitions of Bread
Bread is a major staple in many cultures diet, so it’s no wonder that so many superstitions and myths have developed over the years. It also has great religious significance and is normally associated with communion and “partaking of the bread”. Because of it’s religious significance, it’s thought to be a major sin to throw away unwanted bread, and if you do, it’s said you will go hungry. This could be the reason a lot of people give birds their stale or unwanted bread. This way it is used by one of the creatures of the Earth, rather than going to waste. Another scary rumor is that if you throw bread into a fire, it’s the same as feeding the devil! So let’s remember NOT to do that!
Superstitions on Preparing Bread
Since bread has been prepared for hundreds of years and is known as one of the earliest of baked goods, you can see how it would be loaded with a variety of superstitions.
Many parts of the world actually believe that a menstruating woman who touches the dough will cause it to not rise. And if the dough happens to crack during the shaping of a loaf, or during the baking process, there will be a funeral in the near future.
It is also said that boys should keep away from women while they’re kneading dough. According to superstition, if the woman happens to stroke the young mans face with dough on her hand, he will never be able to grow a beard. Some cultures will even mark the top of a loaf with a cross in order to keep it free of evil spirits while baking.
Placing the bread into the oven should always be a one person job, if two people put the bread in the oven together, a fight between them will soon occur. You must also be very careful when placing it in the oven, because if the loaf happens to topple over or goes in upside down, there will soon be a death in the household.
Scottish superstition says that singing is also not allowed during the baking process, nor should bread be cut with a knife while another batch is baking. Have you ever baked a batch of bread where some of the loaves were stuck together? If you have, then pay close attention to how many loaves were attached. Four loaves stuck together means two will join in marriage, while five loaves together is significant of a funeral.
There seems to be great importance placed on breaking open the first loaf, rather than cutting it. You should also use a skewer instead of a knife when testing the bread. There is an old proverb that seems to speak of this: “She that pricks bread with fork or knife, Will never be happy, maid or wife”. This is also relevant when baking cakes.
Myths and Superstitions on Serving Bread
When serving the bread, be sure it is sat on the table in an upright position, if not this could bring misfortune. Slicing of the bread is also quite important, it should always be cut from the top edge and never from both ends. Now here’s a strange one… A woman that places a round loaf on the table upside down means that she also spends much time on her back as a prostitute.
Breaking of a loaf or cake while cutting is a very bad omen, it could bring anything from arguments amongst family members to death of a family member.
Discovering a hollow spot inside the loaf may mean different things among different cultures. Some believe it’s a sign of pregnancy for the woman that has baked the bread. Which is in short a sign of life. While others see it as a sign of death, meaning the hollow spot is a coffin or grave.
Hear this….Never pass the bread on the blade of a knife or toast it on the end of a knife, poverty will surely consume you.
Other Superstitious Uses for Bread
If you need to protect a child from evil during the night, it’s said to place a piece of bread under their pillow while they sleep. It may also be placed within their clothing in order to bring them good luck.
The United States is home to a belief that placing bread and coffee under your house will protect you from ghosts and demons. Also bread that was baked on Good Friday or Christmas has special healing powers. This is why some folks actually preserve this bread throughout the year to help protect the home and it’s occupants.
Many recipes over the years have been developed that may treat people for such things as toothache, diarrhoea and the whooping cough. Although for this to work properly, you must bury the bread underground for a certain time period before feeding it to the afflicted.
The bakers dozen, which is 13, was developed on the omen you should bake one extra loaf so the devil can have one. But this is purely superstition. In all reality the 13th item in a batch is to compensate for any shrinkage that may occur during the baking of the other 12 loaves.
But beware folks, anyone that eats a lot of bread will surely grow a chest full of hair. This may not be a bad thing to us men, but I’m sure the women out there should heed the warning.
Does your cultural or family beliefs consist of any other great myths or superstitions on bread?
The big myth in my fitness culture is that bread IS the devil, for all intents & purposes! People avoid it as if just looking at bread will make you fat & flabby.
However, many bodybuilders that I know use high grain breads (such as Ezekiel bread) as a staple of their diet. It’s a great source of fiber, a diet requirement.
My personal opinion is that all things should be taken in moderation. And all things should be as unprocessed as possible. If all you eat is bread, that’s not healthy because it’s not in moderation. If you eat highly processed white bread, that’s not healthy because your body has to process all of the chemicals and additives and never gets the actual things that your body needs from its food!
However, that superstition about bread isn’t nearly as interesting or amusing as the ones you’ve written about.
Very interesting James, I have heard of this that bread is terrible for your diet. I do love it so it’s a hard thought to swallow.
But I normally eat whole wheat bread, but I’ve heard that even the whole wheat can have what I think was referred to as “white flour” or is this not the case?
What wheat bread would you recommend as the best for a healthy diet? I’ve not heard of Ezekiel bread before, is it available in Health stores exclusively or is that something you can find in a regular supermarket?
ezekiel bread is the highest recommended ‘healthy’ bread that i know of. It’s usually found in the freezer of any grocery store here, but i live in a big city. it may only be in health food stores in smaller towns. and it’s probably available online if you want to order it.
a warning, it’s got a completely different texture and taste to what most people think of as “bread”. but once you’re used to it, it is quite delicious.
normal wheat bread is often made with refined white flour (the kind that you want to avoid), you have to read the label to see what is included. luckily there are more and more truely whole-grain breads available.
Very cool, I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for the ezekiel bread next time I go to the store. We have HEB grocery stores here as well as Walmart Super Center, hopefully one of them will carry it. I would like to at least try it. I’m not a huge health fanatic, but if I can cut some of the bad in the things I eat on a regular basis it couldn’t hurt. Thanks for the tip James!
Oh God, I never thought about bread in such way) Does baking in a baking in a bread machine also has some superstitions? Or it all refers to oven baking customs?
That’s actually a very good question Evan. My research did not produce any superstitions related to bread machines. I would assume it’s because these superstitions have been around way before the bread machine was invented.
But I would imagine, simply because of the nature of superstitions, that any of these could be relevant to a machine as well as an oven. It would all depend on the person believing in the superstition.
After all, superstitions are only as good as the person that believes them. 😉
Awesome…. Thank you for sharing and spending time for this post
You’re very welcome, thanks for reading!
Thanks man for sharing
You’re welcome, appreciate you dropping by…
Ha, indeed, what about bread machines? I heard this superstition about a young man that he shouldn’t be where the bread is baking. My mom told that her grandmother told her about it. She was somewhere from Russia and they still follow this custom..
Cool Martin, very interesting to hear the origin of your experience (Russia). Some of these superstitions are quite old but I think it’s very neat that your family still follows these rules as custom.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
thanks for sharing this with us. good work
No problem, it’s good to hear you enjoyed the post. Hopefully we’ll see you around more often.
Awesome…. Thank you for sharing and spending time for this post
Absolutely, and thank you for taking the time to read it. 🙂
Wow…. I didn’t realise there is so much to something that I eat everyday for breakfast!
Yah, it’s pretty crazy, you can pretty much find a superstition on nearly anything you can think of!
your blog is excalent. It is very useful for me so keep it up.
Here we leave a comment from Gate Coaching in Chandigarh at
Edu Gaps Chandigarh.
Thank You! Glad you’ve found something useful here. Hope you continue stopping by. 🙂
wow they look so yummy to eat like,i wish i can cook stuff like this,i need to learn a lot more first.
Oh I hear ya! That bread looks yummy deluxe, wish I had a big slice with some butter slapped on it right now.