Hot Cross Buns

Tomorrow is Good Friday.  I was talking with a colleague who works with some of our Australian customers.  They were eating hot cross buns today.  I was curious to know the origin.  You can find out more about them here, here and here.

The tradition of Hot Cross Buns dates back to pagan times, when the cross represented the moon and its four quarters and, when the Romans arrived in Britain, they introduced spiced buns which were marked with the sign of the cross.

 

On Good Friday in 1361 it is recorded that small spiced cakes, marked with a cross, were distributed by Father Thomas Rockliffe to the poor of St Albans in England. After this, it became traditional to make and eat hot cross buns every Good Friday.

 

It was believed by many that hot cross buns had miraculous powers. People would hang them from their kitchen ceilings to protect their homes from evil and they were used in powdered form to treat all types of illnesses. It was also said that hot cross buns baked on Good Friday would never go mouldy - although this was probably because the buns were baked so hard that there was no moisture left in the mixture for the mould to live on!