Bread and salt
As a symbolic gift, bread and salt are a custom in many countries that is cultivated on various occasions. Occasions include visiting welcome guests, moving into a new apartment or entering into marriage .
history
Bread and salt were and are in many cultures the absolute staple food . Originally, in regions where its procurement was associated with great effort and high costs, the character of the valuable, often also the luxurious. Nevertheless, both foods should not be missing in a simple or poor household. Their presence was not only related to work done. In earlier times people felt more dependent on uncontrollable factors than they do today. These included, among other things, natural disasters, crop failures and wars that were suspected of being supernatural. That is why the daily bread and the salt in the soup were gifts from heaven, which were requested and, on special occasions, would be given to one another in good wishes and blessings. As gifts from heaven, bread and salt also became a means of defense against evil .
Sufficient bread and salt had to be available not only for the members of a household, but also for the unannounced guest. The common consumption of the two basic foods in connection with the "idea of the right to host, protect and friendship" played a major role among different peoples. Here, as in ancient Israel, for example, so-called salt alliances were created , which were regarded as inviolable.
Over time, bread and salt became metaphors for the essentials of life (bread) and for the necessary seasoning (but also preservation) of life (salt). In his interpretation of the fourth Our Father petition, Martin Luther filled the term daily bread as follows: “Everything that is needed for life and limb, such as food, drink, clothes, shoes, house, farm, fields, cattle, money and property , pious spouses, pious children, pious assistants, pious and loyal overlords, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, loyal neighbors and the like. "
symbolism
The gift symbolizes the desire for community, prosperity and sedentariness. At the same time, the gift should protect against the devil as well as against evil magic and imprecations . Because salt was particularly valuable: it was also used to preserve food.
In ancient times , the Greek goddess Demeter - with the Roman equivalent of Ceres - was responsible for the fertility of the grain . Roman soldiers received the salarium as a reward .
The Bible says of bread: “Jesus answered them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger again, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty again ”( Jn 6:35 EU ). The verse "You are the salt of the earth [...]" ( Matthew 5,13 EU ) refers to the Old Testament , where the expression "salt covenant" in Num 18,19 EU is used as a symbol of constancy.
regional customs
Bread and salt are given away on various occasions:
- to the wedding for a permanent alliance between the married couple
- to move into a house or apartment in order to wish for sedentariness, prosperity and fertility, often combined with the verse "Bread and salt, God preserves"
In Northern Germany and Bohemia, bread and salt are put in a newborn's diaper. In Transylvania , bread and salt were used to protect against weather demons . Traditionally, guests are welcomed with bread and salt as a sign of hospitality .
Web links
- Bread and Salt (PDF; 110 kB) on the website of the Museum of Bread Culture
- Why do we give bread and salt when we move in? ( Memento from February 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: PM Magazin
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhard Zimmermann (Ed.): Rechtsgeschichte und Privatrechtsdogmatik Müller, Heidelberg 1999 ISBN 3-8114-9915-7 p. 339.
- ↑ Compare 2 Chronicles, Chapter 13, Verse 5; H. Guthe (Ed.): Short Bible Dictionary , Tübingen, Leipzig 1903, p. 564.
- ↑ quoted from Our daily bread. Bread for the World, archived from the original on January 22, 2011 ; accessed on September 1, 2018 .
- ↑ Bastian Sick: Broken marble stone In: Onion fish ; Spiegel online from June 14, 2006.