In Sardinian culture, wheat is a symbol of prosperity and good luck. For example, the (present) gift of wheat to the bride and groom was recurring, especially in the central area of the island, for example, in Nuoro. Grazia Deledda testifies to this in the 14th chapter of the novel The Way to Evil (1906)

The women brought her gifts, bent down on her wishing her: as many points of good luck as grains of wheat brought her [...].

And once Maria Noina and Francesco Rosana got married

[d] on the windows and doors it rained down on them a grain of wheat, candies, flowers [...].

In the narrow streets of the Noina neighborhood, the rain of wheat and the noise of the dishes became furious; cries of women and children resounded:

“Good luck! Good luck! ”.

And even when Maria, who was widowed, married Pietro Benu (XXII) in a second marriage, Aunt Luisa, mother of the bride, did not cry or kiss the spouses, like the other time, but threw a herd of wheat on them, wishing: “Good luck! Good luck! ”.

It is interesting to observe in the print Noces, arrive de l'epouse, designed by Giuseppe Cominotti and Enrico Gonin (1839-1840), which represents the arrival of the bride and her procession at the groom's house, how on the right side of the depiction the groom's mother stands out, who, according to the rite, picks up and throws a handful of wheat grains from a plate held with the other hand.

The next action would certainly have been to break the plate, causing a significant noise, whose magical-superstitious function coincides with the removal of all negativity. The broken plate indicates the changes involving the bride: the loss of virginity and the transition from the civil status of an unmarried woman to that of a married woman

Wheat was at the center of propitiatory rites at the end and beginning of the year, especially with the question of raw, or more often cooked, cereal to be consumed with milk or sapa. Other ritual uses of wheat concerned the domestic environment. For example, cooked wheat was eaten in Silius nel Gerrei on the last day of the year, in the belief that this dietary practice was a good omen for the planting of the following year, and a little of it was thrown into every room of the house as a sign of good

The sincerest wish that still persists in the southern part of the island, whose economy was predominantly peasant, is: “greetings and rigu! ” (lit. 'health and wheat', in a broad sense health and abundance/prosperity! ').

Bread was considered 'sacred' not only for the meanings related to the Catholic liturgy, but also as a living food (mostly leavened) and food par excellence (if you didn't have a companion or other food, you would eat, at least, breads and salvia 'bread and saliva'). Bread was also considered a sort of double of human existence. In fact, if the bread was turned upside down, people hurried to put it back in place, in fear that, otherwise, Francas a Susu Sa Domu (lit. 'upside down') would ruin the house. Furthermore, if there was any component in the family involved in an engagement relationship, it was believed that this relationship would be interrupted when a piece of bread already in shape was discarded. If, on the other hand, the bread had burned during cooking, this was considered a disastrous omen of a great misfortune.

Bread, already considered a “sacred” food in itself, implemented its protective value if blessed and, even more so, if dedicated, by vote, to some particular saint. Sometimes this protective function was so marked as to replace the nutritional one. This is the case, for example, of su pane 'e Santu Tilippu prepared in Cuglieri on 23 August for the feast of Saint Philip Benizi, a friar who lived in Tuscany in the thirteenth century, belonging to the Order of the Servants of Mary. His cult arrived in the town of Montiferru in the first half of the 16th century. It is a small unleavened bread decorated with saffron, whose protective function completely overwhelms the nutritional one. In fact, it is not already intended to be eaten, but is preserved, given the multiple properties attributed to it by tradition. Placed near windows, it is believed, for example, that it can prevent atmospheric hazards from entering

In Macomer, on the occasion of Lent, a small anthropomorphic bread was prepared, s'ōmine, surrounded by an olive branch blessed on Palm Sunday, which, hanging in the sheepfolds, was believed to be able to protect both the shepherd and the cattle from dangers.

Beyond the religious blessing, bread, already in itself, was considered to belong to the sphere of the sacred and, as such, often used for amuletic functions. An amulet-bread, for example, was what was hidden between the baby's swaddles or under the pillow to protect it from the cogas/sùrbiles (witches-vampires), who so frightened mothers, who considered these beings of the popular imagination responsible for the numerous newborn deaths

But, if newborns (fragile by definition: pipiedhus modhis 'soft children'), especially if not baptized, were considered to be particularly exposed to the forces of evil, not even adults were considered exempt from these. In fact, it was believed that, especially at night, they could run into doomed souls or the various personifications of the devil. In these cases, having a piece of bread with you was considered a sufficient precaution to guarantee salvation. The theme also emerges from the oral narrative of popular tradition, in various ways, of which an example is proposed here:

The guy had sold his soul to the devil to get rich, then he got married and hid a coconut in his bed. Then the devil had gone, because the time had come to take his soul. The man had said: “Before taking my soul do you want to know how I was born? ”. And the bread answered: “First they plowed me, then they hoed me, then they ventilated me, they ground me, sieved me, then threw me in a bowl of hot water, they kneaded me, then they stomped on the table again, they stomped on my bones, then they put me to rise, and then they threw me in the oven and then they ate me. The day has dawned and the devil could no longer take the soul