A sifter is a household item that is functionally similar to a sieve, but due to its large, sparse mesh, it is suitable for coarser sifting. The bread baked from fine, airy flour sifted through a sieve was called sieved bread; whereas the bread from coarse flour was called sifted bread.

A sifter consists of a cylindrical bast drum (obechaika) and a mesh screen made of bast fiber or wire (a fine-meshed sieve in the old days was woven from thinner material — horsehair). A sifter was used for sifting cereals, flour and grain. Also, it could be used as a measure or container for storing food.

Depending on the context, the abundance of holes may have a positive or negative meaning. The negative symbolism of holes as a metaphor for meaningless, wasted effort, is reflected in Russian proverbs and sayings:

In wedding ceremonies, there were several ways to pinpoint the impurity of the bride. One of them was to put a cradle, in which a sifter or a leaky pot was placed, on the mother of a girl who had lost her innocence before marriage.

At the same time, the sifter had a strong association with the sky as the highest point of the world and the provider of life-giving moisture. The fact that the sifter was also synonymous with the sky as the topmost point, above which there is nothing, might explain the belief that a sifter put on a child’s head would stop his or her growth.

“The woven sieve is covered with a sifter”, says the cosmogonic riddle about the earth and the sky. At Christmas festivities, the sifter was used to create a “Nativity Star”: it was attached to a high pole, and an icon and a candle were placed inside it. In times of drought, women would pour a bucket of water over the sieve, thereby encouraging a real downpour.

Water “with earth from under the gateposts”, on which the gate leaves were hung, was passed through the mesh of the sifter and was revered as healing water. Sick children and cows after calving were washed with it, and on Holy Thursday, sheep were doused with it.