Folk Beliefs About Food

Often while searching the society’s archives for a particular item, we stumble across a hidden treasure that we need to share with our members and followers.  This booklet, clearly labeled as a menu from the Kutztown Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival, is from the mid to late 1950s.  Curiously, it contains no menu items.  It does, however, contain some folk beliefs about food in Pennsylvania Dutch lore.  Some are written in PA Dutch with English translations.  How many of these did you grow up with?

 SILVERWARE

Wonn die ren ess-govvel nunnery fallt, doan kummt en monn; won en messer, en weibsmensh; won en Leffel, en kind; wonn der shepp – leffel, der breddicher; won des brote-messer, der bucher; un won der shepeel – lumba nuch en shlopp.

If a fork falls at the table there will be a man visitor; if a knife, a woman; if a spoon, a child; if a ladle, a preacher; if a bread knife, a butcher; and if a dish rag, a sloppy person.

Wonn die govvela ivver am essa glingla, bedeit’s arvet for den lawdamacher.

If the forks ring during a meal, it portends work for an undertaker.

Won en grosser Leffel fallt, kummt en bratemaul ins haus.

When a large spoon falls a braggart will soon appear.

EATING

Unless you eat something green on Maundy Thursday, you will get the itch.

Wommer ebbes ess toss mer sell yawr nuch net gessa but kott, sull mer druf winscha; wos mer winsht watt wor.

When eating anything for the first time in a season, make a wish and the wish will come true.

Eating a few hailstones from the first hailstorm of the year prevents sickness for the rest of the year.

THE TABLE

Luss die kinner nie net singa om dish, es bedeit nix gutes.

Don’t let the children sing at the table for this is a bad omen.

Shwetz net fun da beeblin om dish, due machsht sie da hinkle – woi sicher.

Don’t talk about chicks at the table or else they will fall prey to the hawks.

To see to it that a new maid does not become homesick, scrape a little wood from the corner of a table and serve the scrapings to her on a piece of bread and butter.

If a child does not begin to walk at the proper time, walk it around the table on Sunday morning while the church bells are ringing.

A baby must not be placed upon a table or it will die within a year.

Wommer alles ess toss uff em dish iss, sawgt mer, “es gebt gute wetter.”

If you eat all the food on the table, the saying is: “There will be fine weather.”

Wonn anes om dish neest hart mer fun ra leicht.

Sneezing at the table is a sign of death.

BREAD

Wommer en labe brote es unnersht sevverscht uff der legt, heila die engel im himmel.

If you lay a loaf of bread upside down on the table, the angels in heaven will weep.

Formerly it was customary in the Pennsylvania Dutch country for the mother to lay apiece of bread out in the yard or on the outside windowsill on Christmas Eve.  The following morning the mother gave a bite of the bread to each member of the family, believing that health would be assured the household for the year.

Wer s letsht shtick brote u fem deller nemmt, gebt en alt maidel.

Whoever eats the last piece of bread will be an old maid.

Brote oss me ruff Himmelferdawg backt wat net grotzich.

Bread baked on Ascension Day will not become mouldy.

Mer darf net kaira wommer brote backt odders brote gate net in die hay.

If you sweep the kitchen on baking day, the bread will not rise.

BREAD AND CAKES

A folk cure for whooping cough was to feed the patient a piece of bread baked by a woman who in marrying did not change her surname, as for example: Mary Snyder married to William Snyder.

To cure a child that stutters, bake two loaves of bread in one pan so that they attach to one another.  Take the loaves and break them over the child’s head.  Then the child will be cured.

If anyone has been drowned and the body cannot be found, throw a loaf of bread into the water.  The loaf will remain motionless over the spot where the corpse lies.

When removing to another house, you should send a broom and a loaf of bread on ahead to prevent homesickness.

Wonn en kuch ous em backoffa jumpt, donn shtarbt ains ous selra householting.

If a cake you are baking jumps out of the oven, it portends a death in the family.

Ferfale net fett – kucha backa uff der fawsnacht dawg, won du shaina grout – keep witt im naigshta summer.

Be sure not to forget to make fastnachts on Shrove Tuesday if you want to grow large heads of cabbage.  Feed some to the dog and cats, too.