Have you ever tried to change the weather? Our Slavic ancestors had many rituals for this, including the use of bread and salt. Among the eastern and southern Slavs, for protection from hail or thunderstorms, bread and salt were offered to a thundercloud in order to appease it. Slavs could set a table outdoor or offer bread and salt on a shovel or in a “dezha” (special wooden tub for sourdough bread making). And during a drought, they threw bread and salt into a well, or went out with them into the field and prayed for rain.
ꏍ
Bread and salt were thrown into the river so that the water would carry away all the diseases, or as protection from flooding. The Belarusians put them in a fishing net so that Vodyanoi would help with a successful fishing; the Bulgarians threw them to Khala along with the money so that Khala would not eat the cattle bathing in the lake.
ꏍ
They were also used for divination. To determine the fate of a relative, Slavs placed salt, bread, oven clay and charcoal on the corners of the table. Then they would hold a bread on a string to see if it deviates in the direction of bread and salt (then the relative is alive), or to clay and charcoal (than the relative is dead).
ꏍ
To be continued…
