You know that bread is a staple food for people all over the world— whether you eat it as plain bread, chapatti, roti, naan, pitta bread or what have you.
Did you know that there are many interesting sayings/superstitions about bread— how it should be eaten, baked, taken out of the oven and so on? Of course we don’t believe in these superstitions any more today but it is interesting to see the way people reacted to certain things hundreds of years ago. Here are some of the interesting superstitions—
If a loaf of bread broke while being baked it meant that a stranger would drop in and eat it. It was considered unlucky to sing while baking bread.
While it was unlucky to find a grain of wheat in a baked loaf, finding three whole grains meant good luck. If four loaves stuck together on being taken out of the oven it meant a wedding in the family. In case five stuck together, it meant a death in the family. Also, if you dropped a loaf while taking it out of the oven, it meant someone would die within that year.
When there was a tongue-tied child in the family, people took two loaves that were stuck together and broke it over his head, believing it would enable him to speak. Also, if you rubbed your sticky hand over a boy’s face while kneading dough he would never grow any whiskers!
A hole in a baked loaf signified that you were likely to face bereavement. A big hole meant someone in the immediate family was likely to die. A small hole indicated the death of a distant relative. In other parts of England a hollow loaf meant the arrival of a new baby. Offering the last piece of bread to someone meant you would be doubly blessed— with a handsome spouse or a lot of money, or both.
In some parts it was customary to ask, “will you have a handsome husband or a thousand pounds?” and the taker would reply, “I’ll have a thousand pounds and then I’ll have the handsome husband in any case!”
Marking bread with a cross was very much the practice throughout the 19th century and continued right up to the middle of the last century. It signified protection from evil eyes or ‘to stop it from being bewitched’. In Yorkshire people called it ‘crossing the witches out’. If you kept the loaf of bread upside down on the table it was supposed to bring you ill luck— a death in the family or a shipwreck.
Some other popular bread superstitions could be explained to some extent. It was considered especially unlucky to burn bread. This was based on the conviction that food should never be wasted— not even crumbs. Many believed that bread should be broken rather than cut. This was meant to respect the belief that Jesus Christ had ‘broken’ the bread during the Last Supper.
Others modified the tradition by the practice of breaking just the first loaf. The people of Wales believed that if you were able to cut the bread evenly you would be successful in life. This obviously meant that if you had the quality of being deft and neat in your work you were likely to go far.

Storm in a teacup
There are interesting superstitions related to tea as well. It was considered unlucky to throw away the tea leaves. They had to be placed at the back of the kitchen range to keep poverty at bay.
Others believed that burning tea leaves and tea dust would make them rich. In the late 18th Century people who worked in the fields had a sip of cider after drinking tea in the belief that:
“If you want to live forever, you must wash the tea off your liver”.
Some believed that nine drops of tea poured from the pot after the guests were served would help cure heartache and strewing tea leaves across the road in front of the house would keep evil spirits away. Also, it was considered unlucky to stir tea in the pot. And to have good luck it was essential to make tea in one’s own teapot.
Bubbles in the teacup could signify a visit from a stranger.
Or it could mean that you were about to take a journey by water.
Reading one’s fortune from tea leaves was a favourite gypsy trait (remember Fatty dressing up as one and telling Mr Goon’s fortune in the Five Find Outers?).
There are superstitions related to how you add milk and sugar to your tea. If you added the milk before sugar you ran the risk of losing a loved one.
If you left the lid off by mistake while brewing tea it meant that a stranger would call quite soon.
If a tea leaf floated in your cup it could mean the same thing.
But if you left the lid off deliberately you would either be sent for or you would need to call the doctor before the day was out. And it was bad luck for two people to pour tea from the same pot.
Have you heard of similar sayings?
You don’t have to believe them, of course, but they would tell you some interesting facts about the ways of human nature!