Clairebear - my own darling Secret Santa! Sorry I shuffled off to Buffalo after posting in the Pressie arrived thread. Inky & I did not sleep for two weeks but that day we spelt a looong time. I wound up with a winter cold, took some cold medicine and slept for what seemed like days. It was cold and rainy here so Inky was perfectly happy to stay with me in the nest of blankies he makes at the foot of the bed!

I'll talk about my pressies in the pressie thread to prevent thread drift. On the issue of breads - on the site you linked to I saw this quote:

>>British bakers scar hot cross buns Ð seasoned with raisins and citrus Ð with Christ's cross to Ôlet the devil fly out<<

And it reminded me of how my irish grandmother always told me to cut a cross into my sodabreads to keep the fairies from from tainting them. In a thread elsewhere I once told the story she told me about how Fairies are really fallen angels. I also PMed it to somebody - let me look and see if I can find it to paste here:

Ok I found it - this is how she expalined what the Sidhe are to me:

>>During the time of the great war in heaven, Lucifer rose in rebellion against God our
father. A terrible battle was fought with Lucifer and his legions being defeated. God
proclaimed that Lucifer and every angel who sympathised with his cause were to be cast
out of heaven. This is known as The Fall.

Well, The Fall went on for days and weeks, months even. Thousands upon thousands of angels were cast out. Seeing the great multitudes falling, Michael the Arch Angel begged God to have Mercy and to end The Fall. God was moved by his plea and that instant he ceased casting angels out of heaven. He said "Wherever they are now, let them stay there."

The angels that were still falling through the air became the spirits of the air. The angels that were not yet to hell but in the ground became the spirtis of the earth, those in the oceans, lakes and rivers became the spirits of the water. Some angels were caught inside of trees or boulders and they became the spirits of the trees and rocks. There they remain between heaven and hell. They are apart from God and so they resent us and His love for us.

They are also apart from Lucifer, who they supported. They seek to meddle in the affairs of men to earn his favor and hopefully gain a place in Hell. This is why you must never walk alone at night or walk without your father or cousins (male). If a Fairy were to catch you alone, they could carry you off or bewitch you. You must also never walk by the water alone without your father or cousins for the same reasons. There are fairies there who would kidnap you and carry you to their land onder the water and you would never see your parents again<<

To continue her story -

So, the fairies who resent God's love for humans will sometimes reach out and touch breads set out to cool. Their touch will taint the bread but you cannot see that it is tainted with their envy. To eat the bread tainted by a fairy can make you sick with a mysterious illness no doctor can heal. That is why you must cut the symbol of the Cross into the bread. this prevents the fairies from toaching and tainting it.


I kid you not - that's what she told me. So all you bread makers out there - cut the cross into all your breads if you have envious fairies in your neighborhood! You wouldn't want to get sick!

Of course, this Christian explanation of the fairies is in direct conflict with other Pagan explanations she gave me but it's kinda neat so I offer it up for your amusement.