Cross-buns

Cross-buns, a small cake specially prepared for Good-Friday, and in many towns of England cried about the streets on the morning of that day as 'hot cross-buns.' Bun is, according to Skeat, ultimately of Scandinavian origin. There is an Old Fr. word bugne, 'a swelling,' which may be the immediate source of the English word. Good-Friday buns were appropriately marked with the cross, and hence the name. The origin of the practice is obscure. Most probably it is a relic of some heathen observance, to which the early church gave a Christian significance. At Chelsea, there were formerly two celebrated bun-houses, besieged on Good-Friday from morning until night by hundreds of eager purchasers, but they have long since disappeared.