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.

HOW many people who sang that in kindergarten realise that hot cross buns are the forerunners of the Jamaican bun and cheese? For the last two weeks, the supermarkets have already been filled with Easter buns that are as much a part of our culture as rice and peas or ackee and saltfish.

Today is widely observed in Christian circles in the western world as Palm Sunday. It is a re-enactment of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem some six days before his crucifixion. The eastern churches celebrate the feast of the Passover of the 14th Nissan on the Jewish calendar. The other Lent and resurrection dates in the east are in relation to that date.

But in the western church from the time of Pope Victor 1 (one of three popes of African origin) the dates were adapted to Roman culture and its pagan customs. In pagan Rome the people would bring gifts to their spring goddess Eostre from which the word "Easter' is derived) at the first full moon after the first day of spring (March 21).

Pope Victor moved Easter to the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring to communicate the message of the resurrection more effectively. Spring is about new life, so is the resurrection about new life. And the symbolism being strong, baptism is also done at Easter as to be baptised is to be "born again", another symbol of "new life".

So in determining the dates of Easter in the west, the date of Easter Sunday is located first. And then one works backwards to find Good Friday, Holy Thursday, Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, roughly 40 days before that. Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week when Christians reflect on the events leading up to Good Friday.

Adaptation to the culture by the Christian Church was started by Jesus Christ himself who used the Jewish feast of the Passover to distribute his body and blood and to wash his disciple's feet. He also told his disciples at the Passover Supper to "do this in memory of Me". And the Church when transported to Rome would make further adaptations to culture.

Wedding rings are blessed in Christian weddings and worn by the bride, and many times these days by the bridegroom as well. Festivals like carnival and Halloween are also adaptations of practices widely observed in pre-Christian Europe.

Ten months of the year (the exceptions being July and August named for Julius and Augustus Caesar) are named for pagan gods and goddesses. And there would be the adaptations of all sorts of other pagan observances for the use of the church. Cross buns in ancient Babylon were offered to Ishtar, the pagan queen of heaven. The ancient Greeks made similar cakes in honour of the moon.

In England the cross buns were similarly eaten on Good Friday, with the cross symbolising the crucifixion of Jesus. And the British, after their capture of Jamaica, brought the custom here. The English bun, however, was not the same thing as would be made in Jamaica.

For one thing, Jamaican buns are made with molasses, when the original buns in England were made from honey. And in Jamaica, bun is eaten with cheese so that bun and cheese is known as part of the Jamaican culture. And whilst the eating of buns as food of fasting on Good Friday in England waned in time, in Jamaica it has always been as strong as ever. In this way, bun and cheese as food eaten on the Easter weekend is now seen as more Jamaican than British.

But bun and cheese in Jamaica is not only food of fasting. It is also used in the festivities to celebrate Easter. More importantly, cheese is eaten all year round.

The bun and cheese is not the only example of a Jamaican adaptation of food that originally came from other cultures. For example rice, originally from China and India, has been combined with red peas to make the Jamaican unique dish called rice and peas. And for the benefit of all, rice and peas Jamaican-style is different in preparation from the Trinidadian peas and rice (note Jamaicans say "rice and peas" while Trinidadians say "peas and rice").

Bun and cheese as a means of divine history is used in ways similar to the Jewish feast of the Passover. But many who are brought up in a Christian culture who are not devoutly religious treat Christmas and Easter as times when a certain enjoyable meal is prepared. Although Good Friday is a day of fasting for Christians, many eat bun and cheese on Good Friday as a celebration and as a festival.

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