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Washington Window
Vol. 77, No. 2, February 2008
Who knew that pretzels, that most ubiquitous modern snack, began life as a Lenten food?
There are two popular versions of the Lenten pretzel story: One describes how early Christians in northern Italy made a dough of flour, salt and water (as fat, eggs, and milk were banned during the Lenten fast) and fashioned it in the form of two arms crossed in prayer as a reminder that Lent is a season of penance and devotion. They called this bread bracellae, or "little arms," from which the Germans later derived the word "brezel."
Another version of the story explains that while preparing unleavened bread for Lent, a young Italian monk decided to use the leftover scraps of dough to create little treats for children who had learned their prayers. He called his creation pretiola, which is Latin for "little reward."
Whatever their precise origin, pretzels, which are made from unleavened flour, became Lenten fare in many parts of Europe. In Germany, Austria and Poland, they were baked on Ash Wednesday and sold throughout Lent. It was only during the 1900s that pretzels were adopted as an all-year round snack, with their Lenten significance often overlooked.
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