Wedding loaf: a baked symbol of well-being. Wedding loaf - traditions

23.07.2019

They do not stand still: some are becoming a thing of the past, others are changing in accordance with modern demands. The ceremony with the loaf, which today determines the future owner of the house, has practically not changed. How did this tradition originate, what significance did it have?

Tradition "Bread and salt" in ancient times was associated not only with wedding ceremonies. Round bread baked by the mistress of the house, in Russia met dear guests. Bread was associated with wealth, and salt served as a talisman against unclean forces.

It was salt that was considered a symbol of a bright, sinless soul. Such a meeting meant a call to the guest of God's mercy, established friendly family ties between the participants in this action.

In ancient Russia, the loaf was a sign of the blessing of the young for a long and happy life. The groom's parents met the newlyweds with special wedding bread in their hands, accepting the chosen one of their son into their family.

The round shape of the product resembled the sun which gives fertility to the earth, and satiety and well-being to people. These wishes were passed on to the young during the ceremony.

Symbolism

Everything in the preparation of wedding bread was symbolic. It was supposed to be kneaded and baked by a woman who is happy in family life and has healthy children. It was believed that she conveys her positive energy to the newlyweds. They tried to decorate the baked product festively.

Each element of the decor had a special meaning:

rings associated with marriage
spikelets- fertility and prosperity;
doves or swans- fidelity of spouses;
rose flower- femininity, beauty;
viburnum- love, unity;
braid- the willingness of the bride to become a wife.

In ancient times, one loaf was baked, which was intended to meet the newlyweds in the groom's house. However, it was believed that each guest had to taste the wedding bread, as it was a symbol of good luck and prosperity.

Today, when organizing weddings with a large number of guests, the newlyweds sometimes have a question: is one loaf enough? Quite, because the guests will take not a huge slice, but a small piece.

Advice! Choose the weight and size of the product, based on the number of guests.

It is permissible to cook two loaves for a wedding, especially if a wedding is planned on the same day. Then the young people leave the second bread in the church as a gift.

Where to order?

In ancient times, this special bread was baked in the groom's family. Now it is customary to make it to order. They can offer their services confectioneries, bakeries, cafes, private craftsmen. The cost of the product varies depending on the weight and features of the decor.

The average price of a beautiful loaf (1.5 kg) - 1000-1500 rubles. A more luxurious option will cost 1500-2000 rubles. Private individuals can order small wedding bread (1 kg) even from 300-500 rubles.

Important! When choosing a place where you will order a loaf for a wedding, trust the recommendations of your friends, study the reviews of previous customers.

What should be the wedding bread?

In ancient times, it was believed that the size and quality of the loaf also predicted the fate of the young. If he turned out to be magnificent and tall, then this promised well-being in a new family. Too browned bread testified to the grumpy nature of the future spouse.

Today, young people can choose the appearance of the loaf themselves. It can even be plain rich bread with a small indentation in the center for a salt shaker. However, it is better that it looks festive.

Delicious round-shaped bread with beautiful dough figures will please the newlyweds and their guests. Pay attention to the fact that the figures on the finished product are located correctly. So, if birds are used for decoration, then they should be directed towards each other, which indicates the unity of the souls of the newlyweds.

How is the ceremony going?

For the loaf ritual, you will need some more accessories:

salt shaker with salt usually placed on bread;
beautiful towel for the presentation of wedding bread;
icon to bless the young;
glasses with wine, champagne.

Who meets

According to the ancient tradition of newlyweds Meet the groom's parents. Mother holds bread on an embroidered towel and pronounce parting words. Father blesses with an icon, symbolizing the spiritual traditions of a young family.

What should young people do?

The most common version of the loaf ritual is to determine the future owner of the house. Young bite off the loaf. Whose piece gets more, he wins. It is also possible to simply treat each other with bread, after salting it.
After regaling the loaf, the newlyweds are also offered to drink wine. Having drained their glasses to the end, the bride and groom should smash on the ground.
After blessing with an icon young people need to kiss her as a sign of acceptance of Christian covenants.
At the end of the ceremony, the newlyweds thank parents and kiss them.

What are wedding cones?

In Russia they also baked wedding cones- small sweet buns from the dough left over from the loaf. Their young handed over to everyone who was invited to the wedding. No one who received such an invitation had the right to refuse.

Modern newlyweds presenting wedding cones in the process of accepting gifts from guests. Thus, they thank for the gift and share a piece of their love and happiness.

Signs and superstitions

Water for the dough had to be brought from 7 wells, and flour had to be taken from 7 bags.
A married man put a loaf in the oven.
A cracked loaf is a bad omen.
Ready bread should be protected from prying eyes.
At the feast, it is shared by the godparents of the bride and groom.
Every guest should try the wedding bread. This promises good luck.

What can be replaced?

Modern creative couples can be offered original alternatives to the traditional loaf:

Sandwiches with caviar symbolize wealth and prosperity.
Berries with cream. Young treat each other, dipping berries in cream.
Lambs with honey. One bagel is broken in half and dipped in honey.
Black and white chocolate. The groom takes black and the bride white chocolate, then they treat each other.
Prediction baking. The newlyweds choose a cookie, cupcake or croissant, break it open and read the prediction.
Fruit on skewers.
Ice cream.
Pizza.
Cake.
Slices of watermelon.

Photo examples

In the pictures and photographs below you can see a variety of options for wedding bread, as well as patterns for it:

wedding cones

Since ancient times, in various cultures, it was customary to present a wedding loaf to the newlyweds, which must necessarily have a round shape, since the circle is a symbol of the Sun, and, as you know, almost all peoples worshiped the Sun God in ancient times. The tradition of offering young loaves to young people was very popular in ancient Egyptian culture, then it was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, who spread it almost all over the world. In Russia, this also became very popular and was considered one of the main attributes of any wedding.

What does the loaf symbolize?

There are many traditions associated with both the preparation and the offering of the wedding loaf. You can get acquainted with the features of this tradition in different countries. But the essence of this wedding symbol is the same for all nations - the transfer of positive energy to the newlyweds, which will help them in family life.

Since the wedding loaf symbolized the happiness and prosperity of the future family, only a woman who is married, has healthy children and is happy in family life should bake it. It is believed that when kneading the dough, this woman will convey her positive energy, which will help the young family become happy in marriage. Be sure the wedding loaf should be baked in the groom's house. According to the recipes that have survived to this day, to knead the dough, it was necessary to take flour from seven different bags, and water from seven different wells. The kneading of the dough was carried out in a special form, on which a cross was depicted. It was allowed to observe the process of kneading the dough, but no one could touch the form with the dough, this was monitored by the woman's assistants. In addition, the assistants read prayers and sang songs while kneading the dough to create a festive atmosphere. The dough was laid out in a special form, decorated with various patterns - pigtails, flowers, spikelets, figures of doves, various ornaments, and so on. All these loaf decorations gave a festive look and, in addition, symbolized love, fidelity and happiness. According to tradition, a married man should send a wedding loaf to the oven. After all, the whole baking process symbolically meant the conception of a child, i.e. the birth of a new family. The stove is the female womb, the shovel is the male principle, and the loaf is the child.

Particular attention was paid to the size and decoration of the loaf. So if the loaf turned out to be big and magnificent, then family life will be happy and comfortable. And the decors on the loaf meant the following:

Rings are a symbol of marriage
Spikelets - prosperity
Pigeons or swans - fidelity
Viburnum branches - large families

The finished loaf should definitely be placed on a beautiful towel, richly decorated with national ornaments.

Photos of wedding loaves

Nowadays, offering a wedding loaf to newlyweds has not lost its popularity at all, and not a single wedding ceremony can do without a loaf. But today a wedding loaf is often baked to order. However, if the parents of the newlyweds decide to bake a loaf on their own, then you can use the recipes for making a festive loaf that you can find. How to decorate a loaf with your own hands, look at the video.

How to meet newlyweds with a loaf

Initially, the loaf was presented to the newlyweds immediately after the wedding: when leaving the temple, parents blessed their children for a long and happy married life. Young spouses kissed him three times and kept him as a symbol of parental blessing. Eating a wedding loaf was not accepted.

Today, the meeting of the newlyweds after the registry office with a loaf means the beginning of the wedding celebration. The traditional scenario for meeting young people is as follows:

As a rule, a wedding loaf, according to tradition, is presented to the mother of the newlyweds: the groom's mother holds the wedding loaf on an embroidered towel. In the center of the loaf is usually a small container with salt. And the mother of the bride, for the blessing of the newlyweds, holds in her hands the icons of the Most Holy Theotokos and Nicholas the Wonderworker, since these saints in Christianity are the patrons of the family
Guests are located on both sides, creating a passage for the young. As the newlyweds head to their parents, the wedding guests are expected to shower them with rose petals, money, and wishes for love and happiness.
According to custom, the mother-in-law congratulates the newlyweds first, and then the mother-in-law. They bless their union and wish their children warmth and love, well-being and health, as well as the speedy appearance of children. Considering the worries and worries of parents at this moment, it is recommended to prepare wishes in advance, which are customary to end with the traditional phrase: “Advice to you, yes love!”
After congratulations, the newlyweds accept the loaf from the hands of their parents and invite guests to the festive table. Since traditions have changed over time, at many modern weddings you can see how, after congratulations, the newlyweds bite the loaf and break off pieces that are abundantly sprinkled with salt and feed each other with them, and the rest of the loaf is cut into pieces and treated to guests

It is only recently that the wedding loaf has become nothing more than a tribute to ancient traditions. But once bread was not just a symbol of a secure, dignified life, it was life itself, and without it, no holiday was simply impossible to imagine. And white, and even festively decorated, bread was considered a real sign of well-being and occupied a central place on the festive table.

In each region, the wedding loaf was decorated in its own way, everywhere there were their own rites and traditions associated with the preparation of bread. But always and everywhere they tried to cook it with soul, with the most positive emotions and decorate it as solemnly and beautifully as possible! A symbol of a happy family life was everywhere considered absolutely round, like the sun, plump, fragrant, decorated with certainly paired figures of a loaf.

To knead the dough for the loaf, special loaf women were invited, and the eldest loaf woman managed everything - a woman who was certainly married, living with her husband in love and prosperity, having a rich house and many children. It was believed that through the loaf, she, as it were, shares her family happiness with the newlyweds. Before starting to knead the dough, women had to wash their faces, wash their hands, tie their heads with scarves, put on a pectoral cross and pray. According to different traditions, the kneading and baking of the dough was accompanied by prayers or songs. It was considered very important that in the hut in which bread was baked, no one swears, shouts loudly and does not get angry - the whole process should take place in a kind, calm atmosphere. The upper room was decorated with branches and viburnum berries, oak branches, towels. Only a married man planted a loaf in the oven.

A large, tall loaf was considered a good omen. Often it turned out to be so big that you had to first take out a few bricks from the oven, and only then you could take out the loaf itself! The loaf was supposed to brown evenly on all sides and be colorfully decorated. It was considered a bad omen if a crack appeared on the loaf and that is why good loaf women who baked the best breads were always in great demand!

They served a loaf to young people after the wedding, before they sat down at the table. Traditionally, this was done by the groom's parents, and the loaf was supposed to lie on an elegant embroidered towel. There is a tradition that young people should bite off a piece of loaf and whoever can bite off a larger piece will be the head of the family. It was necessary to treat each guest and relative with a loaf. Also, after the wedding, small pieces of the loaf were necessarily wrapped in a clean rag and kept for life, as a symbol of prosperity and family well-being.

Now very few people bake loaves for a wedding on their own - they are mostly ordered from bakeries and pastry shops. Unfortunately, the rituals associated with the preparation and serving of a wedding loaf have practically lost their significance and are preserved only in rare villages.

- this is an established tradition that originated among the pagan Slavs and took root in the times of Russia.

In those distant times, bread was considered a gift, and a generous one, which was awarded by Mother Earth for work, diligence and patience. Loaf as a symbol of the highest fertility and wealth was present at various Slavic holidays, it was given great importance. But at weddings, no matter what: rich, poor - a large and round loaf must have been present.

The round wedding loaf symbolized the Sun, it came from paganism, where the Sun-god had to have mercy and take under his protection and blessing the spouses. By the very presence of a loaf at a wedding, the young people were called for a long and prosperous life.

For the preparation of the loaf, loaf women were determined - all already married women, but by no means widows or childless. There could be 3, 5 or 7 loaves, among them the main or senior loaf was determined, who led the processes of dissolving and kneading the dough, baking the loaf. A woman living with her husband in goodness and harmony, love and happiness, who had hardworking and sympathetic children .. There was a belief that in this way a harmonious and happy family life would be transmitted from the loaf woman and the bride and groom. Sometimes this role was taken on by the godmother from one side.

During the preparation of the loaf, women sang songs: this was the song-sentences left over from pagan times: “You bake-fight the loaf, thicker than a brick stove, higher than an oak column,” and also read prayers, as if asking for God's blessing for the young.

Since the loaf, as it were, reflected the status of the future married couple, they tried to make it not only tasty, but also bigger, thicker taller - so sometimes it was baked the size of a wedding table. There were cases when the loaf rose so high and baked so thick that it was impossible to pull it out of the oven and it was necessary to take out several rows of bricks from the oven. After the loaf was ready, it was decorated with viburnum, wheat spikelets. It was a traditional decoration: firstly, in those days, weddings were more often held in the fall at the time of the harvest, just when the viburnum ripened and the wheat stood in golden spikelets; secondly, viburnum was a symbol of strong and strong love, and wheat - prosperity and prosperity.

After that, the loaf was covered with a towel and kept away from prying human eyes.

On the eve of the wedding, small “loaves” were also baked, they were distributed instead of invitations to the celebration.

At merchant and royal weddings, loaves were of unprecedented sizes. In addition to loaves, loaves were also hired, who, on stretchers upholstered in rich fabrics, often velvet, delivered the loaf to the table.

And so the young were met with a loaf, and more often they had to taste the loaf from the middle, which meant the birth of a new life. In itself, the division of the wedding loaf symbolized the loss of the bride's virginity. After the newlyweds were blessed with a loaf, he was given a direct role in the wedding loaf and in the gifting ceremony, they even said about it like this: “put on a loaf”. That is, a relative, a guest was offered to taste, accept a loaf, and in return give something, give gifts to the young. The godparents cut and divided the loaf, and the children carried the pieces. It was unsuitable for guests to leave the wedding home without a piece of the wedding loaf, and already at home in the family it was divided between all the family, even those who did not attend the wedding. It was believed that the one who tasted the wedding

Most likely - round, which is divided at the wedding to treat all its participants.

The name "Korovai" is known only to the Eastern and Southern Slavs. Western Slavs often use the term "kolach" to name the main wedding bread. Various bread products can act as a loaf, for example, a large gingerbread with decorations, a fish pie in the Russian North.

The symbolism of the loaf combines masculine and feminine principles. The word "korovai" is etymologically connected with the name of the cow, symbolizing the bride, and the suffix - ah allows you to see the symbol of the bull-groom in the loaf. The cow-and-bull symbolism of the loaf is clarified by Belarusian wedding songs: a calf is kneaded in loaf dough, the loaf is horned, flavored with cow butter and cheese. The names of ornaments on the loaf are associated with horns: horns twisted from dough, branches wrapped in dough.

Some details of the decoration of the loaf are associated with girlish symbols; in loaf songs, the loaf is likened to a bride. But the loaf can also be associated with the groom. Phallic symbolism is inherent in the loaf (cf. the motif of coitus in Belarusian loaf songs: “Our oven roars, the loaf wants”, as well as the Belarusian custom to put the bride on the loaf before the wedding night). It is no coincidence that a loaf is baked only for a bride-girl, but not for a widow. The motif of intercourse is also embodied by figurines on a loaf: a boar riding a pig, a rooster on a hen, a gander on a goose, etc. Figures of cones on a loaf, a pair of eggs baked in a loaf (when dividing a loaf, they try to steal them from a friend in order to Disgrace him), a hare as a character in loaf songs.

Like some other symbols of marriage, the loaf is usually round in shape, less often ring-shaped. Inside the loaf, chicken, rooster, eggs, coins for wealth are sometimes baked, stuffed with chicken, beef, pork meat, millet porridge, cheese.

Various dough figures are placed on the loaf (birds, animals, the bride and groom, a child, cones, a heart, a cross, the sun, a month, stars), they encircle the loaf with a dough rim, often in the form of a braided braid, tie it with a white towel, a red belt and others

The loaf is baked by both young people or only by the bride, usually on the eve of the wedding, occasionally before the betrothal and even the next morning after the wedding night. Among the Eastern Slavs and the Poles, the dough is kneaded and the loaf is baked by women (loaf women), not divorced and not widows, usually an odd number . In Belarus, firewood for baking a loaf is taken from three yards and from three “happy” tree species. Russian loaves are baked not only by women, but also by bridesmaids, her mother, husband and wife, sometimes in the presence of the groom, seated on an inside-out fur coat. Water after baking a loaf is poured under a fruit tree. In the songs, heavenly forces participate in the manufacture of the loaf: God kneads, the Blessed One sanctifies, angels carry water, pour flour, plant a month in the oven, bake the sun.

With a loaf, as a gift of God, they bless the young, break them over their heads, meet the newlyweds after the wedding. At the wedding, the loaf is placed on the table in front of the young (among Russians, Bulgarians), hung over the bride's head (among the Serbs), and put on the bride's headdress before the change (among the Poles). In Russians, during the wedding, the bride holds in her bosom two peas from both loaves, which the young people then eat together to seal the marriage union.

The central ritual action with the loaf is its division - a symbolic division of the common good into parts and giving everyone their share.

God is invited to participate in the division of the loaf, and when distributing the loaf to the guests - “giving away to the world of God” - they express a wish to give “happiness-share”. Among Belarusians and Ukrainians, the middle of the loaf is usually given to young people, the lower crust to musicians, and the rest is distributed according to seniority to guests and outsiders. Among the Eastern Slavs, during the wedding night, the loaf is often in the bedroom of the newlyweds. Among Russians, the division and distribution of the loaf is associated with the defloration of the bride: the loaf is broken after the wedding night; in the case of the “honesty” of the bride, after the wedding night, the guests are served kurniki, the middle of the pie is filled with fish (otherwise, it is left empty and then sent to the father of the bride).