Hot Cross Buns

I suspect anyone who learned to play a musical instrument remembers the song Hot Cross Buns. But until today, I had never considered what a hot cross bun actually is. A coworker mentioned hot cross buns today, which caused me to investigate.

Apparently, hot cross buns are an Easter food, or, more specifically, a food typically eaten on Good Friday. If Wikipedia is to be trusted, hot cross buns are leavened buns spiced with mixed peel (dried fruit like in a fruitcake) with a cross on top.


Content on Wikipedia is very fluid and some what I read about hot cross buns earlier in the day has changed. But a sentence present this afternoon said something to the effect that hot cross buns are a sort of comfort food for those mourning the death of Christ. That sentence is gone now, but it made me think of how differently people view Christ's death.

In my view, the death of Christ is not something to be mourned. Certainly it was a cruel and barbaric death. Thinking of Christ's suffering is saddening and distressing, but not a cause to mourn. If Christ had not died, Christ could never have been resurrected and our redemption would be incomplete.