The pretzel as symbol

Because of its distinctive shape and symbolic meaning, artists frequently included these twisted breads in their art and, thus, into their story. In art the pretzel can represent eternity, but also the fragility of life, as demonstrated in Jan Van Bijlert’s Pulling of the Pretzel

(c. 1630–1640) and Pieter Bruegel’s Netherlandish Proverbs (1559), where two people are each holding one end of a pretzel. You can spot pretzels hanging from a pretzel stand in the painting by Jan Steen, and if you look closely, you’ll also spot pretzels decorating the large duivekater loaf, as good wishes for the receiver. In Luxembourg and more recently also in Namur in Wallonia, it is a tradition for a man to give a woman a pretzel on mid-Lent (Laetare) Sunday as a confession of love. With great contrast, pretzels were eaten at weddings and, in some areas in Flanders, the Netherlands and Friesland, also at funerals.