Bread and salt facts for kids

Bread and salt, a traditional Slavic greeting.

Bread and salt is a Slavic welcome greeting ceremony and also a type of food.

When important, respected, or admired guests arrive, they are given a loaf of bread placed on a rushnik (embroidered towel). A salt holder or a salt cellar is placed on top of the bread loaf or secured in a hole on the top of the loaf. In modern Russia, on official occasions, the "bread and salt" is presented by young women dressed in national costumes (e.g., sarafan and kokoshnik).

When this tradition is observed in spaceflight, small packages of bread and salt are used.

Images for kids

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  Old Painting by Wilhelm Amandus Beer "Russian Well-Wishers" portrays the Russian tradition of bread and salt, 1874

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  Vice President Joe Biden dips a piece of bread in salt as part of a welcoming ceremony upon his arrival in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 20, 2009.

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  US Naval officer Jonathan Greenert takes part in a bread and salt ceremony after arriving in Vladivostok, Russia, July 3, 2006.

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  Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane taking part in a bread and salt ceremony after arriving in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 13 June 2018

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  Pres. of Israel Chaim Herzog Welcomed By the Samaritan Community with bread and salt

See also

In Spanish: Pan y sal para niños