Today I'm working on some designs for a cartoon competition run by Chewing Pencils for Easter cartoons. Here's my entry. I spent the morning carefully colouring it - often I produce work and then ruin it by an injudicious mark of the brush. I'm pretty happy with it.
"I don't care if you are the Easter Bunny or Jesus resurrected himself
- if you can't pay for the eggs then hop it."
- if you can't pay for the eggs then hop it."
The thing I relish about Easter is the arrival of the hot cross bun, which seems almost entirely specific to England. The rest of the world seem to decide Easter is a day to eat rabbit shaped chocolate and go to church.
I once asked the man about the hot cross bun in Northern Ireland and they don't eat them over there- since they couldn't know the political affiliation of the bun, it was potentially a source of conflict. Hot cross buns have been alleged to be a source of "popery", which simply proves that nobody actually knows what the word means.
Hot cross buns have a long history in England. There is some evidence that the Saxons offered the hot cross bun as a sacrifice to the goddess Diana, with the cross on the bun representing the four quarters of the moon, akin to a sort of early space cake. Hot cross buns have also been used as a charm against evil. If you are worried by evildoers then then the thing to do is thread your bun on a piece of string and hang it by your front door, from where it will send good vibes throughout your home.
In 1361, the first official baking of the hot cross bun was recognised as the creation of Father Thomas Rocliffe of St Albans Abbey who then handed the buns out to the local poor on Good Friday. He took his recipe to the grave, but the buns were so popular that the baking of them spread across the country. Not much happened to hot cross buns in the intervening 650 years but last year Warburtons bakers made a quantum leap in hot cross bun technology and produced "hot cross bun bread", which is proof positive of our dynamic and innovative economy.
On the other hand, several councils banned consumption of the hot cross bun in schools, on the basis that it could prove offensive to non Christians. This is madness as I can't imagine that any child presented with a lovely toasted hot cross bun is going to turn their nose up at it - and it might be a good thing if they stopped eating chocolate for two minutes. The only way that hot cross buns might be offensive is if one allowed them to go stale and then pelted other "faith communities" with them, saying "eat my beliefs, unclean ones", which is a waste of a perfectly delicious treat.
Besides, I never get to the stage where the buns go stale - if I haven't eaten them all on Good Friday, then I'm either dead or out of the country.
