Bread in East Slavic Culture

Believed to be one of the central elements of the East Slavic culture, bread
transcended its purpose as a mere dinner table staple for its nutrient value and became the
symbol of life both in the daily lives of the people and during momentous calendar
rituals. Everyday practices surrounding the preparation and disposal of bread highlight its
importance to the people and indicate its overall sacredness. Its presence at every meal
and repeated appearance in traditional ceremonies indicate the central role that bread
occupied in the peasants life. An examination of East Slavic society reveals that bread
possessed a number of functionsdietary, cultural, and ritualistic.
Some of the respect for bread is evident in the ritual prohibitions surrounding its
preparation: one could not sit on the stove, sweep the floor, or slice other bread while
bread was baking in the oven (Tempest, 5). Also, the existence of strong prohibitions
against wasting bread further emphasizes the sacredness of it: it was customary to gather
all of the crumbs after a meal and feed them to the birds. The practice was further
reinforced with a belief observed in Russian folklore that stated that if a peasant failed to
collect all of the crumbs, evil spirits collected the remnants and after the persons death
weighted the crumbs against the his bodyif the scale tipped in favor of the crumbs, the
soul went to the devil (Tempest, 7). Such daily ritualistic practices underlined with
folkloric beliefs reveal the eminence of bread in the eyes of the Slavic peasants.
With its ritualistic presence at every single meal, bread occupied the center of
mealtime and consequently the center of life. According to Soviet custom, hosts
presented their guests with bread and salt, a gesture of friendship and hospitality. The

practice transcended human interactions into the spiritual world: upon moving into a new
house, peasants had to formally invite the domovoi and gift him with bread and salt as
part of the summons (RFB, 54-55). Similarly, millers preparing to thresh wheat had to
first appease the vodianoi by offering him gifts of bread and salt (RFB, 73). Again, when
entreating the leshii to return a child he had stolen upon a mothers thoughtless request
made in a bout of anger, mothers had to submit their pleas accompanied by bread and salt
(RFB, 69). With its regular appearance in the daily lives of peasants, both among human
interactions and those occurring between spirits and humans, bread evidently occupied a
pivotal role in East Slavic culture.
A number of Slavic holidays feature bread as a component of a ritual where it
carries out a symbolic function. Most evident throughout Slavic calendar ritual is the use
of bread to symbolize abundance and health. During the Day of the Forty Martyrs, a
holiday dedicated to the summoning of spring, children were given lark-shaped pastries
which they then placed in trees as an attempt to evoke larksbirds who were believed to
bring in spring with their migration (Lecture). Moreover, during this same holiday
women baked bread that they presented to Mother Spring as a welcoming gesture of her
arrival (Lecture). On St. Georges Day, the first day of the season when cattle were driven
to pasture, owners participated in rituals that were meant to ensure the safety and
prosperity of their cattle. One such practice was to feed the cattle special bread that was
baked on Holy Thursday (Lecture). Ascension was a church holiday celebrated forty days
after Easter during which people would bake dough ladders that had tripartite symbolic
purposes: to aid Christs ascension into heaven, influence the growth of grain, and reveal

the afterlife destination of the participants (Lecture). In anticipation of the upcoming

years harvest, the winter festive period of the agricultural calendar primarily featured
rituals that focused on values of fertility, abundance, and prosperity, with bread
occupying a prominent place in most of these peasant festivities (Tempest, 6). One such
example is evident in the practices surrounding Yuletide: during the holiday celebrations
young people went out to sing carols that proclaimed abundance and prosperity. Some of
the songs that they performed contained demands for ritualistic handouts. In turn, the
hosts presented the carolers with special breads or buns shaped like livestock. These
offerings served the purpose of ensuring an excellent harvest in the upcoming season and
an abundance of livestock (Tempest, 6). As observed in a number of Slavic calendar
rituals, bread possessed a symbolic role where it stimulated the cyclical course of nature
and facilitated divinatory practices.
An examination of peasants daily lives affords evidence that bread reserved a
prominent place in the lives of the East Slavic peasantry. The prohibitions associated with
the preparation and disposal of bread signify that its importance ran deep in society to the
point that bread was perceived to be sacred. Naturally, the nutritional value of bread made
it a staple of a peasants diet; but most importantly, bread served a symbolic purpose of
friendship and hospitality when exchanged among humans and spirits and represented
abundance and health as a staple and ritualistic food item.