In Britain, the ceremony of First Footing is traditionally observed in the early hours of New Year's Day. A piece of bread is left outside a door, with a piece of coal and a silver coin, and is supposed to bring you food, warmth and riches in the year ahead. The steam puffs up the dough and, as the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle. One bread superstition is that if you put a piece of bread in a baby's cradle, it will keep away disease. Murphy's Law dictates that buttered bread will always land buttered-side down.
Bread is inexpensive.
One family of four can live 10 years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat. Scandinavian traditions hold that if a boy and girl eat from the same loaf, they are bound to fall in love. Superstition says it is bad luck to turn a loaf of bread upside down or cut an unbaked loaf. Legend has it that whoever eats the last piece of bread has to kiss the cook.