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Hot Cross buns and the death of Easter
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A recent survey in Britain by Readers Digest found that whilst 64% of the population said they believed in God, only 48 per cent were able to correctly pinpoint the Resurrection of Christ (ergo Easter Sunday), and only 42 per cent could name Judas Iscariot as the man who betrayed Jesus. There were other somewhat shocking results relating to other religious knowledge (well shocking to me anyway), but the ones about Easter stuck in my head more than anything else. Easter in Britain is a popular holiday because it is a long one. We get Good Friday and the following Monday off work (a 4 day weekend), the reason for this is fundamentally and inextricably linked religious nature of Easter. True the actual weekend we celebrate Easter on is a pre-Christian celebration (the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox), however the fact that we encompass Maundy Thursday (day Christ was betrayed), Good Friday (day Christ was crucified), Holy Saturday (Christ's body laid to rest), Easter Sunday (Resurrection) and Easter Monday (witnesses of the resurrected Christ) into the entire celebration gives the weekend an overall religious theme. Given this I find it shocking that such ignorance about what Easter is about exists amongst my fellow countrymen.
This leads me on to the theme of hot cross buns. When I was child hot cross buns were available at Easter only (possibly during the whole of Lent if you were lucky). This was because there is a religious significance to them. Again the origins stem originally from pre-Christian traditions of having cakes as offerings, but the buns themselves now have a cross on them to signify the Easter holiday and their significance in relation to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. Today they are available all year round in Britain. I think that's interesting when placed next to the survey showing British ignorance toward the holiday weekend we are still in.
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