For other meanings see kalach

Kalach (inhabited locality)

Kalach is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia.Urban localities*Kalach, Voronezh Oblast, a town in Kalacheyevsky District of Voronezh OblastRural localities*Kalach, Sverdlovsk Oblast, a settlement in Alapayevsky District of Sverdlovsk Oblast...

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Kalach , also known in Ukrainian as kolach), is a traditional East Slavic bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

 used at various ritual meals. It name came from the Old Slavonic word kolo (коло) meaning "circle", "wheel".

A man who made kalaches was called a калачник (kalachnik), which sometimes by sandhi

Sandhi

Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...

 effect became калашник, and sometimes such a man's descendants thus got the surname Калачник (Kalachnik) or Калашник (Kalashnik), or in Russian Калашников (Kalashnikov) (= "[son] of the kalach-maker").

Ukrainian tradition

Ukrainian

Ukrainian cuisine

Ukrainian cuisine has significant diversity, historical traditions. "Cuisine - Flavors and Colors of Ukrainian Culture."] . Accessed July 2011. Common foods used include meats, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, berries and herbs...

 kolachi (plural) are traditionally made by braiding dough made with wheat flour into ring-shaped or oblong forms.

It is a symbol of luck, prosperity, and good bounty. It is traditionally prepared for Svyat Vechir

Twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper

A twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper is traditionally prepared in many Eastern European cultures, including Lithuanian, Polish, and Ukrainian . The meal consists of twelve meatless dishes representing the twelve Apostles...

 (Holy Supper), the traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

ritual, most often 3 round breads stacked one atop the other with a candle in the middle.

Kolaches are also featured at memorial services.

Russian tradition

The Russian word калач (kalách, kolach) is the Russian word for a specific type of twisted white bread. In former times калач meant any kind of white bread, and before modern methods of grinding wheat came into use, white bread was classed as a type of fancy bread.