Bread and wine are so pure that there is no evil to mar their sanctity. They are used for komka, or communion. Magic cannot affect bread and wine. We have to revisit these traditional notions every time we talk about a myriad of rituals in which bread and wine are paramount, as well as about the household ware used to make them. As present-day people strive to go back to nature and its gifts, an increasing number of enthusiasts today open the old books to learn how to knead the bread the way this was practiced in the Bulgarian lands for centuries. Now they have to discover a few new words and solve riddles such as: A side here, a side there with white snow in the middle. What is it? Well, of course, the trough.
Trough, noshtvi in Bulgarian is the wooden tray in which bread is kneaded. In the past, it was a must-have in every home, along with the hearth that was the first thing to build in a house. The trough was made of a whole piece of wood – either of elm or hornbeam. The elm was also used to delineate a new yard with a new fence. In traditional beliefs, a home encircled with an elm tree will never be deserted, because no evil can possibly pass by it. The hornbeam enjoyed special attention too. It is related to the myth of the Young God. In the days surrounding the winter solstice the Young God descended from heaven along the branches of a hornbeam. Legends and folk songs tell us that after the Holy Virgin gave birth to her Infant she looked for a tree in the woods to tie a cradle for Him. The only clean place found by her was a golden hornbeam.
Just like all items linked to bread the trough was part of the women’s space in the house, but interestingly, was passed down from father to son. Once made and blessed, the trough would never leave the house. The old house is where the old trough is, a saying goes. The old house was where old couples lived, with the families of their grown-up children. If the father decided to separate his sons and build new homes for them, the young men had to make the troughs themselves for their wives to knead bread.
When entering a new home, the first thing for the man to do was to make fire in the hearth, and for the woman, to knead bread in the trough. Before that the wooden tray had been incensed and sprinkled over with virgin water. A similar sequence of actions was required in the process of integrating the young bride into the home of her in-laws. She was given a poker to stir the fire, then asked to go round the hearth three times and finally, was taken to the trough. There she had to leave gifts – bread, water and a cloth she had woven herself. Her mother-in-law then said to her, “Here, daughter, I give you the trough! Let it be full of dough for weddings and christenings, for various festive occasions!” At that point the bride bowed and kissed her mother-in-law’s hand.
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