Bread 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. Chambers saw the hot cross bun as a memorial of this. On the same day the king blessed cramp-rings, which were believed to cure cramp and were eagerly sought: Lord Berners wrote from Spain in 1518 begging Wolsey to keep him a few.
Good Friday bread
Good Friday
Lore and belief
Bread so baked was kept by a family all through the ensuing year, under a belief that a few gratings of it in water would prove a specific for any ailment
From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 1, p. 418. Read the original
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