Also called khleb-sol, chleb i sól, bread and salt welcome
A loaf and a little salt carried into a new home or offered at its door, so the household will never go hungry and life there will keep its savour.
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Take care: Check the household's food allergies, especially wheat or gluten, and choose a suitable loaf.
Honoured guests, officials and newlyweds are met at the door with a large decorated loaf and salt on an embroidered towel. The guest breaks off a piece, dips it in the salt and eats it. Refusing was a serious insult.
After the ceremony, the couple's parents meet them at the reception with bread and salt, often with a glass of vodka or wine. The gifts wish the new household plenty and the strength to handle hard times together.
Jews of Eastern Europe kept the custom of bringing bread and salt to a new home, and it remains a common housewarming gift. Salt also has a place at the Jewish table, where bread is often salted after the blessing, recalling the salt offered with sacrifices in the Temple.
No one can say when Slavic peoples began greeting guests with bread and salt, but the pair is old and widespread. Bread was the staff of life, and salt was costly, necessary for preserving food, and long linked with lasting bonds. The Russian word for hospitality, khlebosolstvo, is built from the two words. The custom is also strong in the Baltic states and the Balkans, and similar welcomes are found among Armenians, Albanians and others.
Jewish communities who lived among Slavic neighbours shared the custom and brought it to America in the great emigrations of the late nineteenth century. Its best-known appearance in English may be the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, where Mary Bailey gives a family bread, salt and wine on moving into their new house. Today Russian, Ukrainian and Polish officials still greet visiting dignitaries this way.
A cross woven from fresh rushes on St Brigid's Eve and hung in the house and byre to guard against fire, hunger and harm for the year ahead.
The first visitor to cross the threshold after midnight on New Year sets the household's luck for the year, so they arrive with gifts of coal, bread, salt and drink.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
