When should you eat Easter eggs and hot cross buns?
BRITS locked down because of the coronavirus pandemic haven’t risked missing out on their annual chocolate binge at Easter.
We’ve being buying tonnes of the sweet treats online, to get around social distancing rules. So when should you eat your Easter eggs and hot cross buns?
When should you eat Easter eggs?
If you ask any chocoholic when to eat an Easter egg, they’ll probably reply “anytime I want to”.
Chocolate Easter eggs – and their Easter bunny counterparts – are modern traditions rather than being part of religious tradition.
And in the UK, parents often organise an egg hunt on Easter Sunday, preferably after the main meal of the day has been served.
But, other people will tuck into the confectionery any time from Good Friday through to Easter Monday.
The tradition of eating chocolate at Easter is tied to Lent.
During the six weeks before Easter, known as Lent, Christians abstained from consuming animal products.
This included all dairy and eggs.
Eggs represent a symbol of life, birth, purity, fertility and regeneration.
In Egyptian mythology, the phoenix burns its nest to be reborn later from the egg that is left; Hindu scriptures relate that the world developed from an egg.
Eggs have long been associated with the Christian festival of Easter, which celebrates the death and resurrection of Christ, since the early days of the church.
However, Christian customs connected with Easter eggs are to some extent adaptations of ancient pagan practices related to spring rites, explains Cadbury.
The modern tradition of eating chocolate eggs at Easter is a fun twist on the religious ritual, and makes it more accessible to children and those of a non-religious disposition.
Despite the current Covid-19 crisis, Brits in lockdown have been flocking to online sites to buy chocolate eggs.
At one stage, Cadbury even stopped taking orders on the morning of April 6 after reaching its online “order limit”.
It and other chocolate makers’ online sites struggled to keep up with exceptionally high demand for deliveries by Easter weekend.
And for any parents feeling slightly guilty about treating cooped-up offspring to Easter eggs during the lockdown – you shouldn’t feel bad!
Education experts at Deakin and Flinders universities in Australia told The Conversation that “parents shouldn’t worry too much about how they manage the Easter egg stash and its impact on their child’s long-term eating behaviour.
“Especially because these are difficult times and we’re all doing the best we can to get by.”
When should you eat hot cross buns?
It’s traditional to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday.
The sweet treats are usually eaten on Good Friday to mark the end of Lent, and come in mouth-watering flavours at the shops, from M&S’ salted caramel to Aldi’s rocky road stuffed buns at Tesco.
With Brits celebrating Easter in lockdown this year, there’s no need to pop to the stores to pick up your stash when you can make your own at home.
Hot cross buns are surprisingly easy to make in a bread maker – according to AO.com – and taste fantastic when devoured still warm from the oven.
According to the historic St Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire, “the Alban Bun, the original hot cross bun, has been a part of the Easter tradition at St Albans Cathedral for nearly 700 years.
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“It is said that the Alban Bun, the precursor to the famous Hot Cross Bun, originates in St Albans where Brother Thomas Rocliffe, a 14th Century Monk at St Albans Abbey, developed an original recipe.
“From 1361, Brother Thomas would distribute these buns to feed the poor on Good Friday.
“The original recipe remains a closely guarded secret, but ingredients include flour, eggs, fresh yeast, currants and grains of paradise or cardamom.”
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