Superstitions, Traditions & Quotes

10 Bread superstitions

Make a cross on your dough to let the devil out.
Cut bread at both ends and the devil will fly over the house.
A paste of bread, pepper and crushed garlic, applied to the face, relieves toothache.
If a boy takes the last piece of bread from the plate, he’ll have to kiss the cook.
To burn bread can mean that a preacher is coming or that your sweetheart is angry with you.
Leave bread and coffee under a house to prevent ghosts from calling.
Eating bread baked by a woman whose maiden name is the same as her married name is a cure for many illnesses.
If all the bread is eaten at the table, the next day is sure to be fair.
Sin-eating was carried out at a funeral, when the sin-eater would eat a loaf of bread and by doing so took the sins of the dead person upon himself.
Sailors formerly took a hot cross bun to sea to prevent shipwreck and farmers kept one or two in their granaries as a protection against rats

The New Year tradition of First Footing involves leaving a piece of bread, coal and a silver coin at the front door, - to bring you warmth, comfort and enough money to last throughout the coming year.
The bride at a Muslim wedding must eat 21 small chapattis before leaving the room.
Bread is used in our language as a symbol. Christians pray for their ‘daily bread’ and we work ‘to earn a crust’. ‘bread’ and ‘dough’ are slang terms for money.
The workers who built the pyramids of Egypt were paid in bread.
The phrase ‘baker’s dozen’, meaning 13 not 12, comes from the Middle Ages when there were problems with bakers cheating their customers by producing under-sized loaves.

‘The sight and scent of a newly baked loaf has a romantic appeal that transcends all other culinary achievements’
Elisabeth Luard
‘Bread and water - these are the things nature requires. For such things no man is too poor, and whosoever can limit his desire to them alone can rival Jupiter for happiness’
Seneca
‘We have learned to see in bread an instrument of community between men - the flavour of bread shared has no equal’
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
‘The universe of bread is made up of a nostalgia for one’s childhood, the hard work of farmers, millers and bakers and the distinctive pleasure given by something ‘authentic’ and flavourful’ - Jerome Assire
‘Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesman it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf - GK Chesterton
‘A loaf of bread,’ the Walrus said, ‘Is what we chiefly need: Pepper and vinegar besides Are very good indeed’ - Lewis Carol (The Walrus and the Carpenter)
‘Wine that maketh glad the heart of man; and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man’s heart’ - The Book of Common Prayer
‘Their learning is like bread in a besieged town; every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal’ - Dr Johnson