Christmas bread ( Ukrainian , Galician. Krachun ) is a huge white bread , a symbol of family wealth, which is prepared on the eve of the holiday with great solemnity and ritual.
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The Slavs
Christmas bread in the form of a loaf is characteristic of the southern Slavs and in the Carpathians. The eastern and western Slavs are more common cakes , cookies, flat cakes, rolls [1] . For all Slavs, Christmas bread was on the table during all Christmas time or until the New Year ( Vasiliev’s Day ) on a white tablecloth in the red corner . The Poles believed that on Christmas night “Pan Jesus” himself broke off a piece of festive bread for himself, but this was not visible in the morning, as the bread “grows” to the whole [2] .
In Galicia
In Galicia, krachun is eaten with the appearance of stars, the owners and workers together at the same table, and at the end of dinner, the owner fires a pistol shot at the window. For krachun the owner conducts home negotiations with him, in which he expresses the wish for a good harvest [3] .
In the Balkans
Chesnitsa (from * čęst- “ happiness, inheritance ”) - Christmas bread and the main dish of the Serbs holiday table [2] . Christmas bread begins with this bread. Celebratory bread is decorated with various figures and patterns of dough, as well as green branches. The scabbard is a symbol of fertility and prosperity. For the preparation of garlic, flour is taken from the first or from the last sheaf of harvest, water for kneading was earlier brought from a spring or well before sunrise. At the same time, approaching the source, they greeted him and threw small coins or grains into the water. When preparing holiday bread, they put a coin or seed (dough, beans, nuts) in the dough, and during the meal they look who will get a slice of such garlic - according to popular belief, happiness awaits the coming year.
For Bulgarians, a similar bread for fortune-telling is called Kraiv , for the Macedonians and Bulgarians - pochach , pita , for the Greeks - basilopitta . In northern Greece, on ritual bread, farmers depict a plow with bulls, pastoralists - sheep. The owners share this bread with livestock.
In Western Europe
In Germany, different types of bread are baked for Christmas. The Dresden cupcake " Stollen " ( Stollen, Christstollen ) symbolizes the swaddled baby Christ and is prepared from heavy yeast dough long before the holidays, so that the cupcake has time to soak and become perfectly tasty. German Christmas bread ( German Advent brot - “Advent Bread”, “Fruit Bread” ), unlike the Dresden cake, is not sweet, and served with salted butter.
In England, prepare Christmas pudding . It was first mentioned in the XVII century. Then the pudding was prepared in copper pots a few weeks before Christmas with the whole family, and each family member made a wish.
In Italy, the most popular Christmas cake is the Panettone Cupcake. It is believed that the tradition of cooking it for Christmas arose in the 11th century [4] .
See also
- Garnet
- Pogacha
- Loaf
Notes
- ↑ Plotnikova, 2012 , p. 427.
- ↑ 1 2 Plotnikova, 2012 , p. 428.
- ↑ Bogatyryov, 1971 , p. 203-207.
- ↑ Geography of Christmas pastries: from stollen to bagels
Literature
- Bogatyrev P. G. Issues of the theory of folk art . - M .: Art, 1971. - 511 p.
- Christmas bread / Plotnikova A. A. // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 2012. - V. 5: C (Fairy Tale) - I (Lizard). - S. 427-431. - ISBN 978-5-7133-1380-7 .