Pause for Thought – Marmite hot cross buns? Let’s not forget the story behind them

‘Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross buns!’

Glamorgan Star news 21/03/2024

2 minutes read

Pause for Thought Rev’d Robert Parrish - Marmite hot cross buns? Let’s not forget the story behind them

THIS was the cry of street sellers in the 18th Century, and it became a nursery rhyme. The hot cross bun originated at St Alban’s Cathedral in England in 1361. At that time, St Alban’s was an Abbey, and the monks provided an early form of foodbank for the hungry.

One Good Friday, one of the monks, Brother Thomas Rocliffe, created a special bun to share out. There was a cross shaped mark on the top of the bun, to remind people that this was the day Jesus died on a cross.

Hot cross buns became very popular and are now available all the year round. They come in a variety of flavours: apple, orange, caramel, white chocolate, even marmite! Perhaps because the buns are on sale all year round not everyone is aware that the cross is a reference to Christianity.

Mind you, the cross was not always the main Christian symbol. Some of the first Christians were fishermen, and Jesus told them they were to be ‘fishers of men’ in their missionary work. So, the first Christians adopted the fish as the sign of their religion. At a time when crucifixion was the fate of anyone who crossed the Roman Empire, the cross would not have been seen as uniquely referring to Jesus.

But when the Roman Empire became Christian three centuries after the death of Jesus, crucifixion was banned out of respect for its most famous victim. This freed up the cross to become the principal Christian symbol.

Crucifixion was the most wretched of deaths. Although the Romans practiced crucifixion, they did not invent it. They blamed that on the Persians. Civilised people like the Romans wouldn’t have invented such a barbarous method of execution! But they claimed it was necessary to have it as a deterrent to keep the lower orders, slaves in particular, in order. ‘It is only by means of terror that we can hope to coerce such scum’, wrote one Roman historian.

That the Son of God should become a man and share the death of the ‘scum’ was incomprehensible to most of Jesus’ contemporaries. Anyone ending up on a cross was human vermin. We don’t think that way, and yet we still have a tendency to applaud ‘winners’ and dismiss ‘losers.’

We should stand on our own two feet and not expect help! ‘But when Jesus accepted help from Simon of Cyrene in carrying his cross to the place of execution, he showed that it is okay to be ‘needy’, because dependency is part of human nature. And in Jesus we see God needing us’ (Timothy Radcliffe).

This year there will not be a Good Friday Walk of Witness in Barry. The ministers of the various churches decided they would prefer to concentrate on local initiatives. Some will be disappointed with this decision, but there will be Good Friday services in churches throughout Barry and the Vale. My colleague Father Dan Barnes-Davies is conducting ‘Garden Prayers’ at 12 noon on Good Friday, in the new community garden behind St Mary’s church, Holton Road, Barry (followed by hot cross buns). We hope this will appeal to those who would have wanted to go on the Walk.

Rev Robert Parrish