Hot Cross Buns
| "Hot Cross Buns" | |
|---|---|
| Roud #13029 | |
| Song | |
| Written | England |
| Published | c. 1798 |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
| Writer(s) | Traditional |
| Language | English |
"Hot Cross Buns" is an English language nursery rhyme, Easter song, and street cry referring to the spiced English bun known as a hot cross bun, which is associated with the end of Lent and is eaten on Good Friday in various countries. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13029.
Lyrics
The most common modern version is:[1]
Hot Cross Buns
 Tune for Hot Cross Buns |
Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
one a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters,
give them to your sons.
One a penny two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
Origins
The earliest record of the rhyme is in Christmas Box, published in London in 1798.[1] However, there are earlier references to the rhyme as a street cry in London, for example in the Poor Robin's Almanack for 1733, which noted:
Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs
With one or two a penny hot cross buns.[1]
- ^ Charles Hindley, History of the Cries of London: Ancient and Modern (Cambridge University Press, 2011). p. 218.
References
- 1 2 I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 197.
