Amazing the things you find out when you start doing research...here I grew up eating hot cross buns - which were explained as 1) having the cross to remind us of Christ - and b) rich and sweet - ending the (historical) privitations of Lent

and now doing a bit of googling I find out that they are actually part of a religious ceremony celebrating the mystical marriage of Astarte and Tammuz - stolen by the Christian priests and perverted to their own ends.

This even though most agree the tradition is derived from the British Isles - and there haven't been many worshipers of Astarte OR Tammuz there...