Hot cross buns

Good Friday · Chelsea, London

Still kept

In London and all over England, though not in Scotland, Good Friday began with the street cry of hot cross buns, and a plate of them on every breakfast table. Poor children and old people took up selling them for the day. Families once walked out to the two rival bun-houses at Chelsea, each claiming to be the real original and both said to have been visited by the king. The buns are still eaten on Good Friday.

One a penny, buns, Two a penny, buns, One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross-buns!

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 418. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Dressing the salt spring at Droitwich Still kept WorcestershireAubrey recorded that the people of Droitwich kept holiday every year on the day of St Richard, who was born in the town, and dressed their brine well with green boughs and flowers.
The witches’ Good Friday meeting Lore and belief LancashireGood Friday was believed in Lancashire to be the witches' great day of gathering.
The passion-dock pudding No longer kept Northern EnglandIn the north of England a herb pudding was a dish nobody went without on Good Friday, and its chief ingredient was the leaves of the passion-dock.
Paste egging at West Derby No longer kept LancashireA Liverpool correspondent wrote to Hone on Good Friday 1826 about paste egging around West Derby, kept up by the young country people.
The Good Friday sermon at Paul’s Cross No longer kept LondonFor a long time a learned man chosen by the bishop preached every Good Friday afternoon at Paul's Cross, the timber pulpit on stone steps in St Paul's churchyard, on the Passion.
Creeping to the cross at Durham No longer kept County DurhamBefore the Reformation a gold crucifix kept inside the image of Our Lady of Bolton in Durham Abbey was taken out every Good Friday, and everyone in the church crept to it.
The clerk’s Good Friday cakes No longer kept Devon, DorsetIn some parishes of Dorset and Devon the parish clerk carried a few white cakes round to every house as an Easter offering.
The Good Friday fast in Connaught No longer kept ConnachtIn Connaught poor Catholic families kept Good Friday with a total fast, giving their children nothing from midnight to midnight, even babies at the breast.
Washing Molly Grime No longer kept LincolnshireIn Glentham church a tomb carries a carved figure the people called Molly Grime.
Good Friday bread Lore and belief EnglandBread baked on Good Friday was kept in the house all year, in the belief that a little of it grated into water would cure almost any illness, and diarrhoea especially.

Hot cross buns

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