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...tru PILOT wont lef it alone 
,mek we start the baking nuh [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
first mek a give unno de history,or the best mi can find on it [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
Easter Bun
I've turned into a notorious eavesdropper and supermarket busybody lately. Last week, in the middle of Foster's Food Fair at the Strand, I found myself defending our Easter Bun to a 40-ish couple visiting from New York. It made me realize, once again, how many little things about our culture we take for granted that others might find interesting.
"What's in those boxes? What are they buying?? This just looks just like fruitcake. Don't these Islanders get enough of that stuff at Christmas?", the woman said; amazed by how a huge display of boxed Jamaican buns and tins of Jamaican cheese were disappearing before their eyes.
"It's really nothing like fruitcake," I intruded, as politely as possible, "it's a much better version of your Hot Cross Bun, only shaped like a loaf." That cross-cultural connection established immediate rapport and I had a captive audience. Americans of all religious persuasions love the Lenten season: it's the only time of year they can find Hot Cross Buns. Eaten only at breakfast, most are like raisin-laden dinner rolls topped with rich, sticky icing crosses. They are about as much like our robust, spiced Easter Bun as dry North American fruitcake is like West Indian Christmas pudding. Poor souls they don't know what they are missing.
I explained that bun and cheese is an Easter season tradition and one of our favorite year-round snacks, eaten in inch and a half-high sandwiches filled with a thick slab of Jamaican cheese. These visitors had never seen cheese in a can, much less ones that size. If I had a can opener I would have done a demonstration right there in the aisle. The idea of a better Hot Cross Bun filled with luscious cheese made the New Yorkers' eyes light up, as if it were a completely new concept. They added this cultural discovery to their shopping cart and said they would take it back home to share with friends.
In this predominantly Christian community, Good Friday was traditionally the most solemn day of the year. It was a not just a public holiday, but a day of religious observance, devoted to Church services and quiet time at home reflecting with family. Work was strongly discouraged. Meals were simple and meager, sometimes only one a day- and nothing with blood was eaten, in recognition of mankind's redemption by the blood shed by Jesus Christ on the Cross. This custom's roots date to the 7th century. In 604 AD, Pope Gregory the Great decreed that during the 40 days of Lent, Christians would repent by complete abstinence from "flesh meat and all things that come from flesh," including milk and eggs. According to Mrs. Ebanks, supper was often simply bun and cheese. Some families would stick to this austere diet until Easter Sunday.
Additional research revealed that Lenten season spiced bun can be traced to a custom called Mothering Sunday that started in England during the late Middle Ages. On the third Sunday of Lent, children who lived away from home as apprentices and footservants were allowed to attend Mass at the "mother" church, where they had been baptized. Afterward, they visited their own mothers carrying gifts including "simnile cakes," spiced raisin cakes covered with a layer of marzipan. On Good Friday, the single meal consisted of plain dry bread and water.
However, by the mid 1300's in England, this had changed and become a Good Friday custom of eating small sweet rolls studded with currants and candied fruit -the traceable ancestor of the Easter bun. These breads may have originated with the monks at St. Albania's Abbey, who distributed similar sweet rolls iced with sugary crosses as Lenten alms to the poor. The colonial English planters brought this custom with them to the West Indies, where Caribbean folk greatly improved the recipe.
So Easter Bun's cultural importance is more than you may have realized. However, judging from its year-round popularity, eating modern bun and cheese can hardly be considered penance.
,mek we start the baking nuh [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] first mek a give unno de history,or the best mi can find on it [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
Easter Bun
I've turned into a notorious eavesdropper and supermarket busybody lately. Last week, in the middle of Foster's Food Fair at the Strand, I found myself defending our Easter Bun to a 40-ish couple visiting from New York. It made me realize, once again, how many little things about our culture we take for granted that others might find interesting.
"What's in those boxes? What are they buying?? This just looks just like fruitcake. Don't these Islanders get enough of that stuff at Christmas?", the woman said; amazed by how a huge display of boxed Jamaican buns and tins of Jamaican cheese were disappearing before their eyes.
"It's really nothing like fruitcake," I intruded, as politely as possible, "it's a much better version of your Hot Cross Bun, only shaped like a loaf." That cross-cultural connection established immediate rapport and I had a captive audience. Americans of all religious persuasions love the Lenten season: it's the only time of year they can find Hot Cross Buns. Eaten only at breakfast, most are like raisin-laden dinner rolls topped with rich, sticky icing crosses. They are about as much like our robust, spiced Easter Bun as dry North American fruitcake is like West Indian Christmas pudding. Poor souls they don't know what they are missing.
I explained that bun and cheese is an Easter season tradition and one of our favorite year-round snacks, eaten in inch and a half-high sandwiches filled with a thick slab of Jamaican cheese. These visitors had never seen cheese in a can, much less ones that size. If I had a can opener I would have done a demonstration right there in the aisle. The idea of a better Hot Cross Bun filled with luscious cheese made the New Yorkers' eyes light up, as if it were a completely new concept. They added this cultural discovery to their shopping cart and said they would take it back home to share with friends.
In this predominantly Christian community, Good Friday was traditionally the most solemn day of the year. It was a not just a public holiday, but a day of religious observance, devoted to Church services and quiet time at home reflecting with family. Work was strongly discouraged. Meals were simple and meager, sometimes only one a day- and nothing with blood was eaten, in recognition of mankind's redemption by the blood shed by Jesus Christ on the Cross. This custom's roots date to the 7th century. In 604 AD, Pope Gregory the Great decreed that during the 40 days of Lent, Christians would repent by complete abstinence from "flesh meat and all things that come from flesh," including milk and eggs. According to Mrs. Ebanks, supper was often simply bun and cheese. Some families would stick to this austere diet until Easter Sunday.
Additional research revealed that Lenten season spiced bun can be traced to a custom called Mothering Sunday that started in England during the late Middle Ages. On the third Sunday of Lent, children who lived away from home as apprentices and footservants were allowed to attend Mass at the "mother" church, where they had been baptized. Afterward, they visited their own mothers carrying gifts including "simnile cakes," spiced raisin cakes covered with a layer of marzipan. On Good Friday, the single meal consisted of plain dry bread and water.
However, by the mid 1300's in England, this had changed and become a Good Friday custom of eating small sweet rolls studded with currants and candied fruit -the traceable ancestor of the Easter bun. These breads may have originated with the monks at St. Albania's Abbey, who distributed similar sweet rolls iced with sugary crosses as Lenten alms to the poor. The colonial English planters brought this custom with them to the West Indies, where Caribbean folk greatly improved the recipe.
So Easter Bun's cultural importance is more than you may have realized. However, judging from its year-round popularity, eating modern bun and cheese can hardly be considered penance.
everyday u a kneed -- dat too much so mi neva try it. Have you ever heard of such a thing? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]
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