Hot Cross Buns.

A couple of days ago, I was in a grocery store and ran across hot cross buns in the bakery section.

I don't recall seeing them before. The children's nursey rhyme flooded back to me. 

Then I wondered, what is the tradition behind them?

Some say they were part of pagan spring festivals and later given the cross by monks wanting to give Christian meaning to the the tradition. Other accounts speak of an English widow, whose son went off to sea and she vowed to bake him a bun every Good Friday. When he didn't return, she continued to bake a hot cross bun for him each year and hung it in the bakery window in good faith that he would some day return to her. The tradition remained after her passing.

In many historically Christian countries, hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, with the cross standing as a symbol of the crucifixion.

That explains their late March/early April appearance.

Happy Easter!