Hot Cross Buns!
"The Hot Cross Bun is the most famous, and probably the oldest, of the many English buns. Unlike today, when it is to be found throughout Lent, the Hot Cross Bun was originally eaten only on Good Friday. According to tradition, Father Rocliff, a monk and the cook of St. Alban's Abbey, in Hertfordshire, on Good Friday in 1361 gave to each poor person who came to the abbey one of these spiced buns marked with the sign of the cross, along with the usual bowl of soup. The custom was continued and soon spread throughout the country - though no other buns could compare, it was said, with Father Rocliff's.
Hot Cross Buns became enormously popular in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Street cries were commonly heard on Good Friday:
- Hot Cross buns, Hot Cross buns,
- One a penny, two a penny,
- Hot Cross buns!
- If you have no daughters,
- Give them to your sons,
- One a penny, two a penny,
- Hot Cross Buns!"
(From A Continual Feast Cookbook by Evelyn Birge Vitz)
In fact these buns have been stocked at the supermarket since well before Ash Wednesday, but we held off and waited for today to partake. I'm thinking homemade are probably much better (I'm not too keen on that candied fruit), so I plan to make these next year. (Have I been saying "next year" a lot lately? I'm afraid so.) The recipe I just linked comes from today's Martha show on which they thoroughly discussed the hot cross bun tradition. The buns they made had no frosting or candied fruit, but plenty of citrus zest, currants and apricot jam. They sound so good and I'll bet they make a kitchen smell just like Eastertime!
While popping open the package released no delicious scents, there was something lovely and fragrant about eating these buns with our Good Friday tea. A memory is in the making when we eat a certain food on a certain day, all because it means a certain something to us all ~ to our family and faith. It's a little thing, to be sure, but you know, I have fond memories of my grandfather eating hot cross buns with his (Irish) tea at Lent. These little traditions are part of who we are, and it feels good to honor them.
Blessings to you all this Good Friday.
