Traditions, quotes and proverbs

Traditions

  • 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 ‘bakers dozen, meaning 13 not 12, comes from the Middle Ages when there were problems with bakers cheating their customers by producing under-sized loaves.

Quotes

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The sight and scent of a newly baked loaf has a romantic appeal that transcends all other culinary achievements.
Elisabeth Luard

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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

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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

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The universe of bread is made up of a nostalgia for ones childhood, the hard work of farmers, millers and bakers and the distinctive pleasure given by something ‘authentic and flavourful.
Jerome Assire

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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

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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)

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Wine that maketh glad the heart of man; and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen mans heart.
The Book of Common Prayer

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Their learning is like bread in a besieged town; every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal.
Dr Johnson

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If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.
Robert Browning

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Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king.
Louis Bromfield

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“With bread all sorrows are less” – Sancho Panza speaking to Dapple, his ass in Don Quixote.
Miguel de Cervantes

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Without bread all is misery
William Cobbett

Proverbs

Avoid those who don’t like bread and children.
Swiss Proverb 

With a piece of bread in your hand you’ll find paradise under a pine tree.
Russian Proverb

Rather a piece of bread with a happy heart than wealth with grief.
Egyptian Proverb

Better dry bread in peacetime than meat in wartime.
Hungarian Proverb