As is well known, bread represents an essential pillar of the diet of the peoples of the Mediterranean. Food par excellence, it is the gift of a fundamental plant of civilization: wheat

The bread production chain begins at the time of planting, when the grain of wheat “dies” in the womb of the earth, so that, as the well-known evangelical passage (John 12:24-26) recalls, it can bear much fruit.

The wheat cultivation cycle until harvest is propitiated with numerous ritual forms, to reverse negativity (famines, natural disasters, etc.) that could compromise the outcome of the agrarian year.

From Easter onward, depending on the area of the island, the patron saints of farmers invoked in order to propitiate abundant crops are different: Saint George, Saint Isidore, Saint Mark. For example, on the occasion of the feast of Saint Mark in Lei, a small town in the Marghine, a votive bread is still being prepared, so that the Saint may grant his help and protection. This is how, for the purpose of an abundant harvest, the evangelist saint and martyr, defined by the appellation of Cogoneri ('recipient of votive bread: sa cogone de Santu Marcu '; but also 'bread dispenser', as protector of agriculture) is invoked:

Santu Marcu Cogoneri,/Dadenos trigu e laore,/By bor fagher sa cogone/Cant'est unu fundu de paneri

(San Marco del pane,/Give us wheat and seeds,/To prepare yourself a bread/As big as the bottom of a basket).

The ancient harvest, carried out manually with the aid of the Messoria sickle, if it is true that it constituted a moment of extreme effort, under the scorching summer sun, was also, when fruitful, a moment of celebration, during which to rejoice in the harvest obtained. A poem by the Desulese poet Montanaru, a century old by Antioco Casula (Desulo 1878-1957), expresses this concept well

Cantu 'e Messonzu

To the massages of Barbagia

Sos trigos sunu che mare

with golden lughentesses.

Cheerful chorus massage

and get ready to mess.

You increase as you say

Humidas, frittas d'atonzu,

Cand'a on Nieddu

Aronzu Falèin and his cousin nies?

In sad courses meries insustu,

A Coat 'e Saccu

Faghias Fogu in Barraccu

I hope I can refresh you.

Cheerful chorus massage

and get ready to mess. [...]

In Terra Non B'hat Dulzura

Non B'hat Gioia CunSagrada

If cousin is not past

What a sad storm.

Tottu Enit tailor-made,

Benit Tottu shared.

Confrome a su ch'has patidu

And you can be happy and hope.

Cheerful chorus massage

and get ready to mess.

(I sing for the harvest.

To the farmers of Barbagia.

The ears are like a sea/with golden reflections./Rejoice in your heart farmer/and get ready to harvest. //Do you remember the wet and cold days of autumn, when the first snow fell on the black plowed field/? /On those sad evenings,/all wet, covered by a hooded coat/you lit the fire in the hut/to be refreshed.//Farmer, rejoice in your heart and prepare to harvest. /[...] There is no sweetness on earth/there is no certain joy/if it hasn't passed before/sadness like a storm./Everything is calibrated,/everything is distributed./Based on how much you have suffered/you can expect good things.//Farmer, rejoice in your heart and prepare to harvest).

After the harvest, it was the turn of the threshing in the farmyards. After ventilating the wheat, separating it from the chaff, it was brought home in bags

Even the time when wheat was stored was an opportunity for joy and celebration.

Once the milling took place, once carried out in the domestic environment with the donkey mill, the wheat was screened with baskets, sieves and sieves (on strexu 'e fenu).

And finally, with the various flours it was possible to obtain bread; a “living” food because it was fermented.

The formerly mysterious process of natural leavening enveloped bread with a sacral aura.

A tradition that is widespread in the Mediterranean has it that Our Lady, still a child, was able to cleverly steal some sourdough from the Wise Sibyl, a wise woman who was very jealous of her knowledge. In this way, together with Sant'Anna, Maria Bambina learned the art of leavening, making it a gift to humanity and, in this way, acting

Just as the entire phase of the wheat cultivation cycle had to be propitiated through special forms of rituals, so too was it necessary to do so that the leavening, the shaping and the baking of the bread were successful.

Sardinian culture boasts a variety of types of finely decorated ceremonial breads, real time markers, as symbols able to distinguish ordinary time from the most important moments of the course of existence and of the calendar cycle.