BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.

Subject: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Gurney
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 03:08 AM

I noticed them in the shops today, January 20th.

Crass commercialism is alive and well in Auckland, New Zealand.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Sooz
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 04:31 AM

Been in our UK supermarkets since the shops reopened after Christmas!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Anne Lister
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 05:52 AM

Hot Cross buns seem to be on sale all year round these days ...me, I only ever buy them at the right time of year!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:31 AM

We bought some for Xmas Day...

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:47 AM

presumably becaus the X on the bun was Xmassy


d8^)

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:55 AM

Here is a nice video showing the Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny. Best if you have hi-speed broadband service.

Happy Easter and Sloppy Easter Eggs!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 01:50 PM

I saw where some New Zealanders make the hot cross bun with chocolate and use chocolate chips for the peel.
A sign of intelligence; the buns with that bitter peel are inedible.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Anne Lister
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 04:51 PM

I've never found a single inedible hot cross bun, unless it had gone stale or mouldy...what a strange concept!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Scrump
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 07:19 PM

In English supermarkets they now seem to sell Hot Cross Buns all year round. I'm surprised they haven't been banned by the PC brigade.

I went into a branch of Waitrose today, and they were selling Cadbury's Easter Chocolate Chickens, and Easter bunnies, and other Easter type stuff.

Pathetic, isn't it.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: skipy
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 08:55 PM

Any day now we should be able to buy fireworks!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Flash Company
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 10:25 AM

As Tabster said, Hot Cross Buns seem to be on sale all the year round.
I recall in a previous existence I managed a wholesale grocery warehouse for a couple of years, one of the first things I did on joining in about July was order the next year's Easter Eggs. That was in about 1969. We took delivery of the order in January the next year and had to store the bloody things because none of the retailers wanted them.

FC

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 03:13 PM

But why can't IU get Mince Pies all year?
They only seem to appear around Christmas!
Colyn.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: folk1e
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 06:25 PM

Why are they sold as HOT cross buns when they are always cold?
Until they go in the toaster anyway!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 08:17 AM

That's because HC buns are tasty, whereas mince pies are not.

There was Valentine's stuff on the shelves at Hallowe'en in my local superstore.

It's still there with the Christmas sale stuff and the Easter Eggs.

What depresses me most are the 'back to school' offers that appear in early July before the little darlings have even started their summer holidays.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 08:29 AM

The trouble is that the period between New Year's Day and the coming of spring is joyless. Groundhog Day is simply not that exciting, and the UK, for some reason, doesn't go for Washington's Birthday.

They tried promoting the Ides of March, but it didn't work out.

I have a delicious recipe for hot cross buns. However, it cheats, being based on baking soda, not yeast. Lots less work, though. At Christmas I put a star on the top rather than a cross.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Scrump
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 08:47 AM

Don't worry, the greetings card manufacturers are always trying to add new "Days" to the calendar, to force us all to buy stupid gifts and cards more often. Once it was just Christmas, Easter and birthdays. Now we get Halloween, Valentine's Day, Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, Grandmothers' Day, and no doubt Aunties' and Uncles' Day will soon be upon us :(

Bah humbug to the lot of 'em! >:-(

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 12:01 PM

Groundhog isn't even a day... We call it Candlemas and it's the feast of the Purification of the BVM and the presentation of Christ in the Temple. Candles for use in the following year are blessed (the Mass of the Candles) and it's the end of Christmas in the Church.

It "coincides" wit the pagan festival of Imbolc and the first turning of the soil for the new years' crop sown in March, it's one of the first heralds of spring, being half way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring equinox (often called a cross quarter day).
Can't see many Imbolc cards for sale in the shops though...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Scrump
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 12:03 PM

Groundhog Day would be good - I could just give everyone the same card I gave them the day before. Think of the money I'd save!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Michael
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 05:19 PM

I saw hot cross buns in shops just before and thought 'The poor kid isn't born yet and already we are celebrating his death!'.

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 05:54 AM

I see the ad below is for Christmas Chocolates... do you think they're trying to get in early?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:05 AM

'Traditionally' hot cross buns aren't supposed to go mouldy.

Last year I saw 'hot cross mince pies'!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Scrump
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:55 AM

I'm surprised the PC brigade haven't yet thought of banning hot cross buns because of the religious significance of the cross on them.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 06:03 AM

'Hot cross holiday' buns anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 06:34 PM

And cross could imply anger, and we know that leads to violence...

Hot is not good, you could burn yourself...

Slightly warm spiced foodstuffs (prepared in an environment that may contain nuts) marked with a mathematical symbol anyone?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST,282RA
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 06:48 PM

Hot cross buns represent the equinox. The cross symbolizes the cardinal points of the zodiac and the bun is a cake or, in Egyptian, khekh or a balance. The kneading motion to roll the dough was like a balance. And the balance with the equinox when day and night are of the same length.

The Easter egg symbolizes birth and the sun--the symbol of life. It celebates spring when life returns. The Easter bunny is really a hare, one of the first animals to be seen in the spring. The eggs were originally serpents' eggs painted red to symbolize the sun (serpent eggs must be warmed by the sun since snakes have no body heat). The hare is called un in Egyptian or "opener" as the eyes are always open. This was symbolized by the full moon. Hence is Easter determined by the Sunday following the first full moon after the pasing of the vernal equinox.

So enjoy your eggs and cakes.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 07:04 PM

I always assumed the Easter eggs were to celebrate being able to eat eggs again after the Lenten fast/closed season, when people stopped eating eggs for a few weeks to allow the poultry to breed.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 08:02 PM

Anyone know when Secretary's Day is?

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST,282RA
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 09:49 PM

>>I always assumed the Easter eggs were to celebrate being able to eat eggs again after the Lenten fast/closed season, when people stopped eating eggs for a few weeks to allow the poultry to breed.<<

But that doesn't explain why they colored them.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 07:34 AM

for fun?

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Scrump
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:51 AM

So enjoy your eggs and cakes

Why I certainly will.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST,Julian
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:18 AM

If you think that stocking Easter eggs and Hot Cross buns early is bad, do you realise that the ingredients for the tradional Shrove Tuesday feast are PERMANENTLY in the shops now!

Just think of all those eggs, flour and milk available to make pancakes!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:38 AM

Mmmmmm crepes for breakfast....

Anyone got some maple syrup?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 07:46 AM

Can't see many Imbolc cards for sale in the shops though...


Liz, you need to go to Glastonbury!(town, not festival)

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Essex Girl
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 08:29 AM

Many years ago I worked for Suchard Chocolate and the Easter eggs were made the previous June. We were then abke to buy the shells and fill them with as many chocolates as we liked and then package them, all at a fraction of the shop prices.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: 282RA
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 11:20 AM

This thread reminds me of the UFO case of Joe Simonton of Eagle River, Wisconsin.

At 11 am, Simonton was having breakfast when he heard the sound of "knobby tires on wet pavement" from outside.

Going outside, Simonton saw a 30 ft craft hovering over his backyard. It appeared to be egg-shaped. A hatch was open and Simonton saw 3 men inside that thought resembled "Italians" in knit caps and tunics.

He also saw a lighted instrument panel which he thought looked "beautiful". One of the men was cooking pancakes over a flameless grill. Another approached Simonton with pitcher and gesticulated that he would like it filled. Simonton filled it with water from a spigot and returned it to the man who then handed him 3 (or 4) pancakes.

The hatch was then closed and the craft shot away with loud whoosh.

Simonton then ate one pancake which he thought tasted "like cardboard" and then he called the authorities and told them his story and have them the remaining pancakes. Subsequent analysis revealed them to be perfectly ordinary wheat germ pancakes.

The symbolism is rather remarkable.   The cake being the Egyptian symbol of the horizon, the egg being a symbol of birth, the astronauts being the 3 wise men bearing gifts. The event occurring around Easter. Strange.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: bubblyrat
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 12:14 PM

Somebody earlier mentioned Valentine"s Day ---- It is,should,& always will be SAINT Valentine"s Day,otherwise there"s no point in having it !!

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: 282RA
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 05:09 PM

Continuing on (I was at work and pretty busy), Simonton's encounter was also indicative of communion, the 3 (or 4) pancakes being wafers. This is my body you eat. Three wafers to represent each "alien." The Holy Trinity. Easter Sunday had fallen on April 2nd that year (1961) and the incident allegedly happened on the 18th. It was the first full moon after the vernal equinox for Easter and the encounter happened three says after the first new moon period after the vernal equinox. What's funny is that Christ supposedly lies dead for three days and to the lunar cults this is how long it takes to see the first sliver of the moon after the new phase begins to pass. He lies dead three days and then rises again. This may also tie in with there being 3 astronauts.

The name Simonton is noteworthy since Simon was the rock upon which Jesus stated he would build his church (even though he supposedly wasn't about establishing a church). As for their Italian appearance, maybe they were actually Semitic. Even the word "pancake" bears some investigation. Pan and cake. Pan being Greek for bread. The bread of life once again. Pan was also "The little god" or the horned one. A very ancient god of nature and male virility, one of the oldest gods worshiped by the ancient Greeks. The Life Giver. Pan also mean "all" and this is appropriate as all that is alive was given life by him. The Gift-giver. Santa Claus of whom our conception was given to us by Thomas Nast who borrowed the image from his own earlier rendering of Bacchus/Dionysus who is another version of Pan.

He is good and evil. He charms us with the sweet music of the syrinx which he was said to have invented and so it bears his name--the panpipes. But he also grips us with wild irrational fear and so we are said to PANic and create PANdemonium.

But even if we suppose that Joe Simonton had something like an NDE without having to go through the dying process and it was all in his head, then where'd he get the pancakes?

Simonton, btw, wrote no books, cut no deals, received no money and wanted to be left alone by the endless streamof flying saucer nuts who sought him out. At one point he stated that if the event happened to him again, he'd never tell another soul.

Subject: RE: BS: Easter Eggs & Hot Cross Buns.
From: Raedwulf
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 12:16 PM

It "coincides" wit the pagan festival of Imbolc

No, Liz, it doesn't "coincide". You know better. All of the major christer festivals fall on the same days as pagan celebrations. It's not coincidence & I know damn well you damn well know this!

Equally, the pagan festival of Imbolc ? Since when did the bloody celts represent "the", eh? Try "a". With a judicious *wink* to any pagan celts who might read this - you know what I mean!