Buns and Eggs

What do you get when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?

Hot cross bunnies!

It was Good Friday yesterday - we ate hot cross buns. And on Easter Sunday we’ll have Easter eggs. As we were preparing for our children’s Easter meeting last week, I thought it would be nice to talk about the symbolism of these Easter traditions. A nice little story, I thought, about the meaning of the eggs (new life in Christ) and the hot cross buns (representing the cross of Jesus).

I got to wondering how these particular traditions came to be, so I did what I always do: I googled it. I was interested, but - come to think of it - not all that surprised to discover that the origins of both the beloved Easter eggs and those delicious spicy, sticky hot cross buns are ... pagan! The Easter Bunny and Easter eggs had to do with fertility rites... I mean it makes sense: what else do bunnies and eggs have in common?

As for the hot cross buns - the cross probably represented the changing of the seasons, to do with the solstice. People believed that hot cross buns protected them from evil spirits and could cure them. In ancient times people would hang them in the kitchen.

The Easter traditions we have pre-date Christianity.

In fact, not just the traditions, but Easter itself. It is possible that Easter actually gets its name from Eostre who is the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. About 1800 years ago, the first missionaries arrived in Europe eager to tell others about Christ. As people converted to Christianity they took the existing spring festivities which already celebrated life over death, and were about the same time as the Jewish passover when Jesus was crucified, and made it a Christian festival.

Beautiful!

Today we celebrate Easter, eating our hot cross buns, remembering the cross that Jesus died on - we remember the sacrifice he made for us. And we eat the Easter eggs, grateful for new and eternal life that we have in Christ.

So now, the next person who questions us for re-investing some of the Thai festivals with Christian meaning will be asked if they’ve ever eaten an Easter egg. Hah!

Now all that remains is for me to share my recipe for hot cross buns - its not the most traditional recipe, but at least all the ingredients are available in Lampang!

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon instant powdered milk
1/4 cup white sugar
A pinch of salt
1 egg
1 egg white
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup dried raisins
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons milk

DIRECTIONS:
1. Put warm water, butter, skim milk powder, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg, egg white, flour, and yeast in bread maker and start on dough program. At the beep add currants and cinnamon. (or after the kneading is done).
2. Punch down on floured surface, cover, and let rest 10 minutes.
3. Shape into 12 balls and place in a greased 9 x 12 inch pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place till double, about 35-40 minutes.
4. Mix egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water. Brush on balls.

• Bake at 190 degrees C for 20 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool on wire rack.
• To make crosses: mix together confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and milk. Pipe a cross on each cooled bun.