Spiritual Business

A bunch of Pagans, the lot of you!

I headed out early on a quest for Hot Cross Buns, to celebrate the Astrological New Year with a Full Moon, the Christian Easter and the Jewish Festival of Purim.

A big weekend for all. I had a hankering for Hot cross Buns though, whatever the festival, and I had to have them.

Here is some lovely information on the Hot Cross Bun. I love reading about the origin and evolution of tradition.

The origin of hot-cross buns is said to be pagan. The Saxons supposedly ate a similar kind of bun in the spring, at the time of the vernal equinox, to honor the goddess of light, Eastre, as she was named for the direction from which the first light of the day first comes.

The goddess eventually gave her name to the Christian holiday. The term bun may have evolved from the Greek word for ox; in ancient Greece a dome of bread, like the head of an ox, came to replace the actual animal for sacrificial ceremonies. At first there were horns decorating the bread. But over time the horns disappeared, leaving only what is now familiar as a bun.

Hot-cross buns first became popular in England as a Good Friday specialty after the Reformation, in the late 16th century at the time of the Tudors.

A decree issued by the London clerk of markets during the reign of Elizabeth I in 1592 prohibited the baking and sale by commercial bakers of "any spice cakes, buns, biscuits or other spice bread except it be at burials, or on Friday before Easter, or at Christmas, upon pain of forfeiture of all such spiced bread to the poor."

In those days spices were rare and precious commodities.

In the early 17th century, during the reign of James I, of King James Bible fame, this decree became unenforceable and spice buns started to be sold throughout the year.

A hot-cross bun is essentially what the English call a Chelsea bun, a confection sold all year. The difference is that for Good Friday, a cross is traced on the top of the bun. English bakers create the cross by slashing the dough or by laying strips of pastry across the top of the bun. There is a theory that the cross was slashed in the top of the buns as a vestige of pagan belief, to ward off any evil spirits that might jinx the dough and prevent it from rising.

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