Bread in the ceremonial year

Bread was of great importance throughout the ritual year. In all festivities associated with the holidays, it played an important role. At Christmas, for example, it always occupied the most important place on the Christmas Eve table. Several types of bread were baked: ordinary breads, similar to today's cakes, strucels, as well as small buns baked for carolers and children. Baking was done on Christmas Eve or the previous day. There is an interesting custom associated with Christmas Eve bread baking. The housewife, having put the strucs in the oven, would make a panicle out of straw, which she would put in her shoe. With this panicle she would walk to Epiphany, then burn it and incense the household members with the smoke. This was supposed to not only bring good luck, but also protect from sore throats.

It is believed that the sharing of the wafer at Christmas Eve is a modified old custom of sharing ceremonial bread in our country. Sharing bread with animals, on the other hand, has remained alive to this day. In the past, sharing bread with family, neighbors and with animals on Christmas Eve emphasized the unity of the world: people cast aside grudges and feuds, wishing each other happiness. It symbolized all the most important existential values: abundance, a good harvest, fertility for women and animals, a life of peace and security.
Bread also accompanied the beginning of the most important farm chores. Their beginning was ceremonial in nature. For example, Beskid highlanders preparing for the first plowing of the year took the plow outside the farmyard, returned to the homestead and, having put a yoke on the oxen, gave them bread and honey to make them strong. Bread was also not to be missed at the start of the harvest. This activity, popularly known as harvesting, was subject to numerous prohibitions and magical injunctions. The harvest was started by a woman, meaning the person who baked the bread. The harvester would bring bread to the field, which would remain in the field as an offering.

Bread in childbirth rites

Between the wars, after the birth of a child, the obstetrician and potka (godmother) gifted each other with bread. This was done in such a way that the midwife would send a carol consisting of kołacz, bread or babka through her husband to the potka. In return, the potka coming to the midwife's ceremonial visit would bring kołacz and vodka. The potka's acceptance of the bread was a symbolic acceptance of the offer to become a godmother, with all the consequences of this.
In some regions of Poland, after shrouding the child, the mother "so that evil eyes would not harm him" would jam a piece of bread behind the child's waistband to protect him from possible spells.
Regarding the connection of bread with birth rites, it can be pointed out that it protected the midwife and child from the influence of evil powers, protected outsiders from the impurity of the woman in confinement. The donation of bread to the midwife, midwife and child was an act of ritual welcome to the world of people.

The role of bread (baked goods) in wedding ceremonies was very important. The so-called wedding cake was a basic element of these celebrations, symbolizing wisdom, hospitality and fertility

Bread and funeral rites

In the funerary customs of the Slavs and neighboring peoples, bread was present at almost every moment of these rites. The frequency of the occurrence of bread in all rites associated with death proved that even after the end of mortal life, bread in its various forms played a significant role in preparing the soul for its final journey "to the other side." In the former Voronezh governorate, the people used to put ladders made of dough on the grave on the day of the funeral, so that the soul of the deceased would have a lighter ascent to heaven.
The death or prosperity of the hosts could also be inferred from the appearance of freshly baked bread. When the bread cracked in the oven or otherwise failed, it augured the imminent death of one of the hosts. The very symbolism of the oven makes it possible to locate this place as the seat of the souls of the ancestors, or at any rate as a place that made such contact possible. It should also be remembered that the neglect of any of the baking activities affected the posthumous prosperity of the ancestors, and thus also the quality of the hosts' mortal life.
Baked goods were food for the soul of the deceased and the souls of the ancestors, a means of protection against unwanted intervention from the world of the dead, they could also constitute payment when crossing the river separating the world of the living from the world of the dead, and were also a gift to the souls of the ancestors.

Bread as a sacred thing

According to folk myths, bread was the kind of pramateria from which God created man. There is a motif in Belarusian and Ukrainian legends that the Polish nobility who inhabited the land was formed from bread, while the local peasantry was fashioned from clay.

The motif of bread is closely related to biblical legends and parables, especially the Gospel story of the Lord Jesus' multiplication of bread. Jesus' twofold miracle performed during his public ministry in Galilee, near Capernaum, is described in the writings of the New Testament. The first multiplication, during which 5,000 men, not including women and children, were fed, was called "the miracle of the five loaves and two fish." The second multiplication, during which 4,000 people were fed, was referred to as, "the miracle of seven loaves and fishes." None of the other miracles left so many traces in the Gospels. This example allows us to conclude that bread, as a divine gift or one of the forms of God, was treated as a living being with sacred properties. Bread being the most basic and common kind of food was a kind of communion every day. It was forbidden to eat it without being "properly prepared," and it was considered a sin to touch bread with an unwashed hand, much less to eat it without washing. It was also forbidden to eat any of God's gifts with a cap on your head. It was also believed that the mutual bestowal of bread was a condition of the world's existence, and that the process comprising the production of a loaf of bread was comparable only to the martyrdom of Christ. Thus, the martyrdom of bread contains a certain "sacral weight." This sacral power of bread is so great that any demon must bow to it. For folk beliefs, it was common to forbid stepping on bread crumbs. Bread was not allowed to be dropped on the ground, as such behavior was tactfully considered a great moral offense. It was forbidden to play with the bread, to drum on the loaf with fingers or a knife, as this was considered abuse of the bread.

Respect for bread

It was once believed that a loaf of bread must not be placed on the table with the convex side, but with the flat side. The existence of this belief is due to the inherent, for almost all of the northern hemisphere, valuing the direction of movement and sides. In short, positive is the right side, negative is the left, positive is the movement towards itself, upwards, with the sun, while negative is the movement away from itself, downwards, under the sun. These oppositions can be transferred to many areas of life; they can refer to objects and their characteristics. They can also refer to sides or parts of objects. That which is positive makes life possible, sustains it, brings it closer to God; while that which is negative shortens life, causes death, brings it closer to the Devil and the world of demons. The flat side of the bread being the reverse of the loaf should therefore be valued negatively.

As for the bread baking itself, it was forbidden for anyone other than the woman to be in the chamber while doing this work. It was also not good if a stranger came to the house during this time. But one belief says that when a stranger came by while mixing bread, the baking must then succeed. The two beliefs differ in their classification of the newcomer. In the former, he was treated as a representative of the evil side of the "foreign world," while in the latter he is a representative of the positive aspects of the "foreign world" of the divine. This belief provides additional evidence showing bread as a symbolic space-time intermediary.

It was believed that bread dough served God as the raw material for the creation of woman, a belief that perfectly emphasizes the connection between woman and bread.

Bread was the creator of the sacred space that is the village home. Before the cottage was erected, pieces of bread were stacked in its knots; the first thing brought into the chamber during the move was a loaf of bread. Also on a daily basis, bread occupied a prominent place in the village chamber. All day long it lay on the table covered with a white linen tablecloth, being at the ready to serve household members and travelers.

It is also believed that during the baking of bread there is an element of competition between the Angel and the Devil, this element is conditioned by the fact that scones are baked and burned in the oven after the finished bread is removed from it. This is compared to the creation of the World (Earth), during which a battle takes place between God and Satan. An analogy can be made here between bread and earth. Bread is a being born by the earth. Like it, it too is called holy and is also treated analogously: "Like bread, the earth is holy, and the fool who beats the earth with a rod for the sake of playfulness receives rebuke or flogging, since hewill be seen by his elders."

These and other examples of the importance of bread in folk traditions and beliefs, allow us to see how comprehensively it was treated. The very process of preparing bread was an unusual process, subject to numerous regulations, incantations and customs. Also associated with the tools for baking and storing bread were peculiar beliefs and rituals. Bread played a significant role in the entire ceremonial year and numerous family rituals. In addition, bread was believed to be closely connected with religion and faith. It was treated as a matter mediating people's contacts with the divine and devilish worlds, closely connected with magic, divination and healing. Hence the reverence for bread celebrated from the dawn of time until today.

Elaborated. and photos by Aleksandra Szymanska

Sources:
Chleb pełnoziarnisty: polska tradycja: wszystko zaczyna się od pola, Warsaw 2010
Fiedoruk A., Domowy wypiek chleba , Warsaw 2005
Gloger Z., Encyklopedia staropolska ilustrowana, T. 1-4, Warsaw 1978
Kubiak I., Kubiak K., Chleb w tradycji ludowej, Warsaw 1981
Siuta A., Chleb jako podstawowy składnik pokarmowy diety cz. 1. Zarys historyczny i symbolika chleba, [in:] Przegląd Zbożowo-Młynarski 2012 nr 5, pp. 8-9