Thanks to the achievements of progress today in every house there are things that our ancestors could not even dream of. As for the products, there are more than enough of them, so some people even throw away excess. Unfortunately, often among the discarded food is bread. Those who do so simply forget that once this product was one of the most important and revered. The presence of bread in the house was a sign of prosperity not only among the Slavs, but also among all peoples, and the person who threw it away was contemptible. So, the famous storyteller Hans Christian Andersen has a story about a girl stepping her foot on bread. It describes the misfortunes and torments that befell a fool for such an unacceptable act.
For the Slavs, bread was not just food, but also had symbolic meaning. Most folk rites have been associated with this food. Numerous counters, tongue twisters, proverbs, sayings, riddles about bread, which were used both in these rites and just in ordinary life, have been preserved.
The meaning of bread in the life of ancestors
The Slavs always ate a lot of bread, extremely surprising these foreigners, who preferred to eat it only in certain cases. This was due to the fact that the Slavs since ancient times were grain growers and needed hearty food in order to be able to perform hard work on the earth.
These and similar sayings were dedicated to bread by ordinary people who, although they ate it constantly, but for them, every meal with this product was equated with a holiday.
It is noteworthy that among the ancestors, the word bread meant several concepts at once. Firstly, the food itself; secondly, the rye and wheat from which it is made; and thirdly, the word bread sometimes meant livelihoods, it was not for nothing that the beggars asked to submit "for bread."
As in human society, among the varieties of bread there was a clear distinction. Poor people often ate rye bread, as it was cheaper and more nutritious. "Buckwheat porridge is our mother, and rye breads are our father's home, " it was said in an old saying. Although among the rye bread there were expensive varieties that were bought only by wealthy people, for example, “Boyarsky” bread.
The phrase “sitcom friend” originally referred to bread. The fact is that in the presence of numerous (there were about 5) types of flour, they were all divided into 2 huge groups: sieve flour (sifted with a sieve) and sieve (sifted with a sieve, was considered coarser). In the manufacture of bread from these two types of flour, different ingredients were used. So, sieve bread was made on the basis of yogurt (sometimes whey), and sieve - on the basis of kvass or plain water.
From more expensive wheat flour, cakes were baked for the holidays. Often, only wealthy people could eat wheat baked goods. “Khlebushko - kalachu grandfather, ” said a proverb, recalling the connection between these products.
Among other things, bread was an integral component of any folk rite: whether it was a meeting of guests, a match, a wedding or christening. Many poems, proverbs, riddles about bread were elements of one or another folk rite. By the way, the round shape of bread had a magical meaning - it symbolized the land, generously giving food to all workers.
Sayings and proverbs about bread and labor
Today, most buy bread in stores or bake it from purchased flour. And in the old days, every family grew wheat and rye on its own, harvested it, ground it with flour at the mill and baked bread. Every child knew how difficult it was to get it. Many proverbs and sayings have been dedicated to this.
Sweat on the back - there will be bread on the table.
If you sit on the oven, you will not see bread on the table.
Whoever plowed was not lazy, the one had bread too.
Sayings and proverbs about bread and fear of hunger
Most of all, peasants were afraid of starvation in the winter. If flour began to end in the middle of winter, when baking bread, various products were added to it: potatoes, grass seeds and everything that was on the farm. This helped to avoid hunger and to live safely until the new spring. “It doesn’t matter that there is quinoa in the bread, it’s a disaster when there is neither bread nor quinoa.” A lot of sayings were invented about the fear of losing a bread and starving to death.
Among other things, people were afraid that hunger could push anyone to a crime, saying: "Hungry and the patriarch of bread will steal."
Puzzles about bread
There were many riddles about bread. As a rule, they were thought to small children what to entertain them and to teach to appreciate it. Although sometimes proverbs and riddles about bread were part of an important rite or a fun game.
Today, not every child will guess that this is about bread. And in antiquity, watching how a mother, grandmother or elder sister bakes bread, everyone knew how he was preparing, and would easily guess the following riddle:
However, the meaning of puzzles changed over time, adapting to everyday life.
Modern bread riddles for children
With the development of agriculture in the twentieth century, the process of sowing, growing, harvesting and making bread has become easier. In addition, now every housewife does not need to bake herself, because everything can be bought. In this regard, modern riddles about bread are somewhat different from old ones.
They describe modern phenomena, such as shops, a brick form, combines and so on.
Riddles about other baked goods
However, the ancestors did not eat bread alone. Many other goodies were baked from flour, both rye and wheat. Pies with various fillings, ruddy pies, bagels with poppy seeds, printed cakes - and this is not a complete list of everything that was prepared if there was enough flour. All this baking was festive, since not many could afford it all the time. A lot of mysteries and sayings were also invented about her. More often than not, parents asked their children to guess what they bought at the fair.
About the pies:
Prepare the place
Roll out the dough thinly.
That jam, poppy seeds, cottage cheese.
It turns out … (pie).
About bagels:
Woman loves, grandfather loves, Eats for dinner, for lunch!
A hole glows inside
Like a ring, take a look!
Poems on Bread
There are not only proverbs, riddles, sayings about bread, but also poems. Most of them have their authors. For example, the famous poet Sergei Yesenin dedicated a wonderful poem to bread.
Almost every Russian poet in his work has works on bread, it was Dmyri Kedrin (“Bread and Iron”), and Marina Tsvetaeva (“Taste is Empty in Bread”), and others. And the great Alexander Pushkin in one of his diaries told how, during a trip to the Caucasus, he incredibly missed ordinary Russian bread, since he did not like the highland cakes.
Dedicated to bread poems and lesser-known modern poets.
