Thanks, Sam, for the references. I will look into them. Incidentally, did you know the mythology behind hot cross buns? I was looking for something else on the web that I could not find, but this was just too interesting not to share. I think it is really important to understand, because it shows the rich pagan traditions behind many things that are thought to only be Christian. How could all of paganism be wrong if the Christians adapted it freely?
Hot-Cross Buns Have you ever eaten a "hot-cross" bun?
At Easter one may go to the local bakeries, or the bakery counters of supermarkets, and see them by
the dozen. They are served in restaurants and cafeterias.
The little rounded buns, with their quaint little sugar-coated crosses, evoke memories of childhood;
and to unsuspecting professing Christians the tiny crosses are believed to represent the
"cross of
Christ."
How shocking to discover that hot-cross buns find their origins in paganism!
Notice what history has to say about the origin of "hot-cross buns":
"It is quite probable that it [the word bun] has a far older and more interesting origin, as is suggested
by an inquiry into the origin of hot cross buns. These cakes, which are now solely associated with the
Christian Good Friday, are traceable to the remotest period of pagan history. Cakes were offered by
ancient Egyptians to their moon goddess; and these had imprinted on them a pair of horns, symbolic of
the ox at the sacrifice of which they were offered on the altar, or of the horned moon goddess, the
equivalent of Ishtar of the Assyro-Babylonians. The Greeks offered such sacred cakes to Astarte
[Easter] and other divinities. This cake they called bous (ox), in allusion to the ox-symbol marked on
it, and from the accusative boun it is suggested that the word 'bun' is derived.Like the Greeks, the
Romans eat cross-bread at public sacrifices, such bread being usually purchased at the doors of the
temple and taken in with them,a custom alluded to by St. Paul in I Cor. x.28. At Herculaneum two
small loaves about 5 in. in diameter, and plainly marked with a cross, were found. In the Old
Testament are references made in Jer. vii.18-xliv.19, to such sacred bread being offered to the moon
goddess. The cross-bread was eaten by the pagan Saxons in honor of Eoster, their goddess of light.
The Mexicans and Peruvians are shown to have had a similar custom. The custom, in fact, was
practically universal, and the early church adroitly adopted the pagan practice, grafting it on to the
Eucharist. The boun with its Greek cross became akin to the Eucharistic bread or cross-marked
wafers mentioned in St. Chrysostom's liturgy. In the medieval church, buns made from the dough for
the consecrated Host were to be distributed to the communicants after mass on Easter Sunday. In
France and other Catholic countries, such blessed bread is still given in the churches to communicants
who have a long journey before they can break their fast" (The Encyclop‘dia Britannica, eleventh
edition, article "bun").
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