Fateful loaf
Added 2024-11-13 12:06:21 +0000 UTCBased on an actual conversation we've had, though I don't really take that kind of folk faith too seriously. I only remarked on it jokingly as I fumbled the bread while putting away our groceries, and when my boyfriend asked me what I'm talking about, it turned out that he'd never heard of that one before.
I've figured that most of the Old Folks' Omens are less magic and more general common sense - back in the day food was absolutely not an abundant resource, so someone who would handle bread so carelessly as to drop it on the floor was surely just as careless and wasteful with money as well, leading the household to a path to poverty and ruin.
And while I can't help being a clutz with material things like the aforementioned bread, I've solved the money issue by having my rent/bills money on a separate account from my grocery/spending money. So even if I impulsively splurge the whole month's food money on dried coconut cubes, the rent has already been paid and my monthly "allowance" is just what was left over after the bills.
Comments
My granma used to say that if bread falls on the floor, you pick it up, appologise and kiss it. And then the upcoming missery will most probably be averted.
Lauma
2024-11-14 09:52:19 +0000 UTCAbsolutely! It makes so much sense to phrase practical advice in such a way that it catches the listener’s imagination, sticks with them, and gets passed along. Like, say, that dangerous bog that’s really really hard to get out of if you fall in and some folks drowned there in the past? Why not say that it is inhabited by evil spirits that drown you to encourage folks to stay away from it?
Davina Appleton
2024-11-13 14:14:40 +0000 UTCSometimes I think about how astonished so many of my ancestors would be to learn that I could - theoretically - afford to buy my own weight in cinnamon. It would take some time and a few months of budgeting, but I COULD.
Foxes in Love
2024-11-13 12:21:54 +0000 UTCI feel like a lot of omens and folklore about curses originated that way - much less "you did not heed my warning so now I curse you forever" and more like telling a small child "stop running like that or you'll trip and hurt yourself" about 30 seconds before they trip and hurt themselves.
Foxes in Love
2024-11-13 12:14:39 +0000 UTCThere's the omen here that if you run out of salt, then the household would run out of money. I guess the origin is the same as the dropped bread and comes from a time where salt was worth a lot more than nowadays
Renate Reimann
2024-11-13 12:13:49 +0000 UTCI love this and your explanation as to why you think this particular “omen” could have come about. That makes so much sense!
Davina Appleton
2024-11-13 12:10:48 +0000 UTC
