My wife has a lot of traditional russian wisdom. Some of them make perfect sense from energetic and symbolic perspectives.

NEVER put the bread upside down, for example, EVER. It is disrespect to the bread and will lead to bad things.

As an American, we are generally just plain ignorant of symbolisms and their import, but as a Christian, we simply can ignore things like this as pagan superstition. This is likely because we are protected, forgiven and accepted by Christ when we die.

But if you are not a Christian and have no protection, you need to know about these types of things and they can be very important. It is a form of basic magic. For many Russians it is common sense.

:)