This year the Easter Bunny is a little bit early; he’ll be hopping in on March 31st and hopefully will be bringing everyone some Hot Cross Buns and Sweet Yeast Rolls to dress up the Easter dinner table! It’s obvious by now that at Europastry we hold tradition as one of our top values, so its no wonder that we take pride in producing traditional holiday foods.
Much like Europastry, Hot Cross Buns are enriched with history and tradition. These sweet, spiced rolls allegedly originated in the Christian community in 1361. The story is that Christian Monk, Brother Thomas Rodcliffe, made a recipe very similar to what we know today as Hot Cross Buns and handed them out to the needy on Good Friday. With time, the Christian tradition became that they were to be eaten every Good Friday, which is the Friday before Easter Sunday. Good Friday is the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, and Hot Cross Buns were meant to be a symbol of that event and a way to commemorate it. With symbolism in mind, lets take a look at the components of a hot cross bun. They are known to be round buns featuring a frosting cross and filled with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and all of these things are meant to symbolize something. The frosting on top in the shape of a cross is meant to represent the cross that Jesus died on, the spices used to flavor the bread are meant to symbolize the spices used to preserve Jesus’ body after his death, and the bread itself is likely meant to represent the body of Jesus.
On the other hand, a contrary story to their alleged Christian roots, hot cross buns also are possibly pre-dated by the traditional German Cross Bun. Cross Buns were used to represent the Goddess Eostre who was the goddess of fertility, and it’s no coincidence that Eostre and Easter seem to be very similar words. It is thought that the word Easter is derived from the Goddess’ name. While Eostre was the goddess of fertility, she also represents the Spring season because it is a time of rebirth, nature comes back to life after the freezing winter, and in Christianity, Jesus is believed to have resurrected from the dead which is what Easter celebrates, so everything is connected in a way. As far as symbolism, Cross Buns are representative of Eostre. The cross itself is said to symbolize rebirth after winter and the quadrants created by the cross are supposed to represent the phases of the moon.
So, the origins of Hot Cross buns seem to raise some question marks, and it seems that we’ll never be completely sure if it all started with Eostre or Thomas Rodcliffe. Regardless, hot cross buns will add that essence of tradition to your Easter or Good Friday table, and don’t forget to add our Sweet Yeast Rolls to the dinner table as well! Reminiscent of a traditional Easter Bread, they’re soft, sweet, and fluffy…kind of like the Easter Bunny… we’ll choose to call that a coincidence.
Even though the Sweet Yeast Rolls do not have the same extensive relationship with tradition and history that Hot Cross Buns do, they are still bound to be an asset to the Easter table. They have all the best characteristics of Spring, so they obviously go hand in hand with the season, and what says Spring more than Easter? I don’t know about you, but after a long, hard day of hunting for Easter eggs, I definitely want to see warm fluffy yeast rolls on the side of my Easter dinner, and then end the night with a Hot Cross Bun, I may even get crazy and sing the nursery rhyme too.
