The Happy Part of Good Friday

Three words, people:

HOT CROSS BUNS !!!!!

I LIVE for Easter, when I can get my hands on these things. Toasted lightly, and loaded up with melted butter... Well, if a life experience can get better than this, I'd probably expire while trying it.

It's not surprising that this indescribable wonder of the bread world has its origins in Pagan ceremonies. Later, the Christian church attempted to ban them, but they were just too damn GOOD... So... gluttony won the day. The Christian Powers That Be concluded, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", and faster than you could say a Hail Mary, the Hot Cross Bun was converted!! Apparently, the buns are a metaphor for the resurrection of Christ: the flour "comes to life and turns itself into bread". Sounds like a BIT of a stretch to me, but what the hell, right? So long as these things hit my breakfast table every Easter, you can spew just about any religious metaphor you like, and I'll buy into it.

Perhaps it was just this sort of human weakness that prompted Queen Elizabeth I to create a law that limited the consumption of the Hot Cross Bun to religious ceremonies, such as Christmas, Easter and funerals... Liz was quite the rich party girl herself, so I'm PRETTY certain that even if the law applied to HER, she could have dreamed up some excellent excuses for getting her mitts on a few of these fruit-and-nut-stuffed babies whenever the fancy took her...

Can't you just hear the old girl shrilling, "ALL THE MORE FOR MEEEE!!!!"

I sure can.