Happy Good Friday!

What are you doing today? Will you, perchance, be wandering city streets with your basket or cart peddling freshly baked hot cross buns? If so, then it’s likely you’ll be singing this classic rhyme as you go:

Hot Cross Buns,
Hot cross buns;
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns.
If your daughter don't like them,
Give them to your sons;
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns.

*

I must say you’re in excellent voice. You’d fit right in with 18th century London hawkers and their “hot cross buns” street cry in the days leading up to Easter. From street cry to nursery rhyme to an aid in musical education, “Hot Cross Buns” is now a cherished part of our childhood lexicons.

Until the 18th century these yeast-risen beauties were called “Cross Buns” or “Good Friday Buns.” The first written record of the name “Hot Cross Buns” was in a popular rhyme published in Poor Robin’s Almanack (1733):

Good Friday comes this month -- the old woman runs
With one or two a-penny hot cross buns,
Whose virtue is, if you believe what's said,
They'll not grow mouldy like the common bread.

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