Weckmann

Mood: Sunshine!
Stage notes: using a friend's computer; we will be helping her move to a new place today

I had a Weckmann for breakfast. This sweet bread in the shape of a man is available in all of the bakeries here during October and November. The buttons and eyes are made of rasins, and mine held a pipe and a sucker. According to one site, "In the early days of Christianity, people used to give benedicted bread to those who hadn´t been able to come to mass. This bread was kind of a substitute for Holy Communion, not consecrated but benedicted. In the Greek and Russian Church, this custom is still alive. Jews have this custom, too. After the service at the beginning of Sabbath, people come together for a meal. The bread shows a man with a pipe in his hand. Originally, the Weckmann symbolized a bishop holding his crosier in his hands, not a pipe!"