Rozune (Syriac mid-Lent coin bread)

Rozune is a sweet bread that Syriac Orthodox families bake halfway through Great Lent. The dough takes flour, sugar, cinnamon and tahini, a coin is hidden in one of the pieces, and whoever finds it is said to carry the blessing for the year. In the church calendar it falls on 9 March, the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. In Syria the bread belongs to the Syriacs of the Jazira, the north-east of the country: Qamishli, Hasakah and the villages around Qahtaniyah.

Which feast it marks

The story goes back to 320. Near Sebaste (today’s Sivas in Turkey), forty Roman soldiers who would not give up their faith were left naked on a frozen lake. One of them, the story says, gave in and ran to a nearby bathhouse. A pagan soldier took his place, becoming a Christian on the spot. The coin hidden in the bread stands for that last soldier.

Great Lent lasts 40 days. Rozune is baked at its midpoint. According to Snack Syrian, reporting from the Jazira, some households also bake it for the Feast of the Annunciation.

What goes into the dough

Flour, sugar, cinnamon and tahini. The dough is leavened, and some homes add vanilla. It is shaped into medium rounds or stars and baked in the oven. The sources give no quantities. Proportions change from house to house.

How the coin is found

A coin goes into one of the pieces, and everyone picks their own. The person who finds it is called “the blessing of our house”, or is simply thought lucky for the year. Some of the bread is given to the animals, and some is left in the fields and vineyards for a good harvest.

Hiding a coin in bread is not unique to Syria: the Greek vasilopita, the Bulgarian banitsa and the Irish barmbrack do the same. What sets rozune apart is its place in the middle of Lent and its link to a martyrs’ feast.

A similar Armenian custom in Qamishli

Armenian families in Qamishli also hide a coin in a tahini bread, but at a different time: during the “little fast” before Christmas. An Armenian woman from the city told North Press that whoever finds the coin is counted as the family’s blessing. The two customs live side by side in the same city, with separate calendars and separate feasts.

How it differs from kleicha and qurban bread

Kleicha is a feast cookie filled with dates or walnuts. Qurban bread is a church bread made without fat or sugar. Rozune is sweet and made with tahini, a bread for the middle of the fast with a coin inside. Mehîr, from the Kurdish table of the same region, is a spoon dish of wheat and ayran and has nothing to do with bread.

Where to eat it

In Syriac homes in Qamishli, Hasakah and the villages around Qahtaniyah, and among Syriac families in the diaspora. There is no verified information about it being sold.