Gilligan's Gourmet: Traditional Easter treat Hot Crossed Buns

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

2 Comments

Delicious Easter treats - hot crossed buns

Photo by Chef Gilligan

Tweet

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
If you haven't got a penny
A ha'penny will do.
If you haven't got a ha'penny,
Well God bless you.

I never understood why they called Good Friday Good! After all it wasn’t too good for Jesus was it?
Growing up in England the most notable Good Friday custom was baking hot cross buns.

Hot cross buns are perhaps the strangest of the Lenten food customs as they are sweet rolls that are traditionally eaten on the most important fast of all, Good Friday.  The origins of this very English custom are not entirely clear.  It has been suggested that hot cross buns originated in the pagan cult that preceded Christianity in Britain.  But the earliest historical mention of them is traced to a 12th century English monk who is said to have marked buns with the sign of the cross in honor of Good Friday.  A 14th century record tells how a monk of St. Albans distributed spiced cakes to the needy on Good Friday, inaugurating an annual tradition, though he carefully guarded his recipe.

If the Daily Mail, one of England’s ‘newspapers’, is to be believed then some city councils across England have banned schools and hospitals from making these Easter traditional buns as they may offend non Christians, a similar story I heard this week was that schools in New York have to call Easter Eggs ‘spring spheres’! I am sure that these are just urban myths though, right?

Hot Cross Buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Ireland. The cross on the top symbolizes the Cross Jesus was crucified on.

There are superstitions in Ireland related to Hot Cross buns and Good Friday for example:

Hot Cross Buns made on Good Friday, have magical powers, they will not go moldy, but if you keep a Hot Cross Bun from one year to the next your house will be protected from fire.

Whatever their origins, there were certainly ideas associated with these buns that some would regard as superstitions.  Hot cross buns were eaten after sundown to break the Good Friday fast. In the Middle Ages, they were believed to have powers of protection and healing.  People would hang a hot cross bun from the rafters of their homes for protection through the coming year.  And if someone was sick, some of the dried bun would be ground into powder and mixed with water for the sick person to drink.

In the reign of Elizabeth I, when Roman Catholicism was banned, making the sign of the cross on the buns was regarded as popery and the practice was banned.  But neither Church nor State could suppress the popular custom, so legislation was enacted to limit consumption of hot cross buns to legitimate religious occasions such as Christmas, Easter, and funerals.  The familiar nursery rhyme, "Hot cross buns," derives from the call of the street vendors who sold them.

Print

E-mail

Tweet