Hot Cross Buns and Easter Eggs also online talks

100,000 Hot Cross Buns were sold on one day - Good Friday - in London by 500 sellars in 1850. But already in 1825 "demand has decreased, and so has the quality of the buns." HERE

Easter Eggs were colored, scratched, left by a hare for some unknown reason, hunted, rolled, thrown and struck against another egg to see which cracked. HERE



Hot cross buns generally were carried in baskets lined with green flannel (to keep warm) and topped with white cloth (for a "clean appearance").

Cornish folklore, and in Robin’s Almanack of 1753 the bun would be hung on the bacon-rack for a year. HERE

Before his death in battle (1801) a young Pennsylvania man “engraved the battle of Bunker’s Hill” (1775) on an egg boiled “in logwood, which dyes the shell crimson, and though this colour will not rub off, you may, with a pin, scratch on them any figure…” HERE

Some eggs had complex designs or colored HERE

Paas Easter Egg Dyes first sold 1880 HERE

White Rabbit, competitor since 1888, still creative HERE. Colorful website HERE

So what to do with the eggs. The "eggs preserved very carefully in the corner-cupboard; each egg being the occupant of a deep, long-stemmed ale-glass, through which the inscription could be read without removing it." [1830] or... hunt for the hidden eggs. HERE

Or go door to door

Easter Monday games: play catch ...HERE and HERE

Easter Egg Roll in DC when schools were closed that Monday. Photo 1889 HERE

In 1836 "New-York, eggs, died or stained with a variety of colours, are displayed for sale on Easter-Monday, by grocers, hucksters, fruiterers, and other venders of edible refreshments. These are called paas-eggs, or pasch-eggs." Two boys would hit the end of the egg held by another. The egg which cracked would be given to the winner.

PAST BLOG POSTS with more info
Hot-cross Buns - 100,000 sold HERE
Hot Cross Buns - kept for a year HERE
Easter Egg games, Roll, Bunker Hill battle egg, Germany 1878, Decorating 1830 HERE
Bacon Racks HERE

TAPED TALKS

-only one of 16 talks in 2021 were taped.

Learn with us Polish Easter Traditions. Food, Easter Basket tradition, painted eggs (some for kids) and fun quick lesson on traditional dances for kids. Polish Klan Association Mar 28 2021 HERE TAPE HERE nicely done

COMPLETE CALENDAR OF TALKS HERE

SOURCES
Crane, Walter. The Baby's Bouquet: A fresh bunch of old rhymes and tunes. London: 188-
Hone, William. The Every-day Book. London: 1825
Mayhew, Henry. London Labor and the London Poor. 1851
National Nursery Book c1870
Poor Robin's Almanack. London: 1753
Rowlandson 1820 image, lady at door. British Library online
Smith, Horatio. Festivals, games, and amusements: ancient and modern. NY: 1836

©2021 Patricia Bixler Reber
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