soul cakes
All Souls' pastries
Soul cakes are small round cakes traditionally baked for All Souls' Day, given to the poor or to children who went door to door singing and praying for the dead.
This medieval Christian custom, called souling, is considered a forerunner of modern trick-or-treating.
The cakes were typically spiced with nutmeg or cinnamon and marked with a cross on top.
Each cake eaten was believed to release a soul from purgatory.
- door to doorVisiting each residence sequentially
- trick or treatHalloween door-to-door phrase
- bakedCooked by dry heat
- pastryButtery baked dough
- offeringSomething presented or given
remembrance · good fortune · treat · prayers · Samhain · sweet · purgatory · seedcakes · recipes · tradition · harvest time · All Saints' Day · Christian tradition · Día de los Muertos · requiem mass · soft · warm · Shropshire
- sweet breadsbanana bread, cinnamon bread, raisin bread, nut bread, pumpkin bread
- ritual breadcommunion wafer, sacramental bread, consecrated bread, altar bread, shewbread
- ritual foodscommunion wafer, communion wine, communion wafers, sacramental wine, seder
- memorial customscemetery visits, grave visits, lighting candles, church services, requiem mass
- food folkloreapple a day, watermelon seeds, bread crusts, forbidden fruit, magic beans
soul cakescommunion wafers
Consecrated liturgical bread
Eucharist · wedding cake · consecrated bread · sacramental wine · baptismal water
soul, souls, souled, soulful, soulfully, soulless, soulmate, cake, cakes