Colac and colaci
Form: Crown of braided bread
Country of origin: Rumania
What distinguishes it from other methods of bread making: Made using brioche-like dough
Category of bread: (10) Belongs to large family of breads offered to the dead when they leave the land of the living
Particularity: In Rumania, bread is intimately associated with funeral rites and ancestral cults
Ingredients: Wheat flour; baker’s yeast or baking powder; milk; eggs; butter; sugar; salt
Rumania
Colac is a large crown of brioche-like braided bread made for certain Orthodox Christian holidays, whereas colaci (it is spoken of in the plural) are offertory breads that the Rumanians make for the dead.
All major bread civilizations have formulated this truth in one way or another, at the heart of John 12:24 in the New Testament: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” These are associated with the grain and the bread, the idea of the passing from life to death. Therefore, the idea of “bread of the dead” is found almost everywhere where man has discovered the secret of transforming grain into bread.
One way of distinguishing these “breads of the dead” from breads reserved for the living is to mark them with special religious inscriptions. For this purpose, each family has its own pristolnic, a sculpted wooden stamp that makes it possible to mark the bread for a specific purpose. This bread will then receive the benediction of the priest.
The term colaci therefore covers a very wide variety of breads of the dead. Among them can be cited uitata, which is shaped like a figurine with no expression and made for those who did not receive the homage of the living during the year. We mustn’t leave out kollyva, made with boiled wheat, almonds, walnuts, pomegranate seeds, raisins and parsley. It is prepared for the dead in all countries with an Orthodox Christian tradition.