In the catholic mass it represents the body of God, Due to this bread is more than food and started to be a symbol of life to be respected. Presently there’s still the habit to kiss the bread when it fall on the floor. The gastronomy of the Alentejo is born as a way to seize stale bread not to throw it away,
In Orada, the community furnace, producing bread, symbolizes the community life. If times were hard little bread was produced and all suffered. It times were of abundance there was lots of bread and all benefited, So, it was need to protect it from evil forces and achieve the divine favour. In the northern region it’s usual to draw a cross in the bread. In Orada the option was to put a cruzeiro (cross) in the furnace, with the same function: to protect the bread and the village.