HOT CROSS-BUNS AND EASTER EGGS.

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In the course of time we find the Christian Church using cakes or buns, such as we have already referred to, and consecrating them; these were bestowed in the church as alms, and likewise to those who, from any impediment, could not receive the host, or consecrated wafer, at the usual time of the celebration of the Lord's Supper. These buns were made from the dough from which the host itself was taken; they were given by the priest to the people after mass, just before the congregation was dismissed, and kissed before they were eaten. They were also marked with the cross, just as our present Good Friday buns This bun is the most popular symbol of the Roman Catholic religion in England that the Reformation has left

are.

to us.

Hot cross-buns have the usual form of buns; but they are inwardly distinguished from other buns by having a sweeter taste, and the flavour of allspice; and outwardly they are known by the mark of the cross, which, as our readers know, has been greatly insisted on in Papal worship and devotion, from the days of Constantine the Great, in the early part of the fourth century, to the present hour.

We see, therefore, that the bun of the ancient Greeks, crossed, to represent the horns of the ox which was sacrificed, and also for the purpose of more readily breaking it, was adopted by the Christians and used as the only food on the day of the Crucifixion, because it possessed, ready at hand, a symbol of that solemn event.

Many superstitions are connected with this species of bun. In some of the counties of England great care is taken to preserve some of these cakes or buns, which being grated after they are dry, are esteemed by the credulous as infallible cures for many diseases.

In the houses of some ignorant people a Good Friday bun is still kept "for luck;" and sometimes there hangs from the ceiling a hard biscuit-like cake of open cross-work, baked on a Good Friday, to remain there till displaced on the next Good Friday by one of similar make:-this is also supposed to preserve the house from fire.

"Old Lady Day. Easter Eggs.-The custom of making presents of eggs on particular occasions is of great antiquity.

In Roman Catholic countries the custom prevails at Easter, where the allusion was evidently meant to be to the Resurrection. In process of time, although the custom still continued, its origin was lost sight of, and a present of eggs, no longer considered as a sacred memorial, became first a sign of friendship, and afterwards a token of affection from one young person to another.

"An Easter egg, the which is sawed open with a fine instrument made for that purpose; the shells within are cleaned and dried, then lined with gilded paper, and adorned with figures of saints, made of silk and gold; they are made to open and shut, and are tied together with ribbons. Eggs of this sort are made for presents to ladies of quality. Two eggs of this description were presented on Easter-day, 1716, to the beautiful young Lady Manfroni, of a very ancient family, by Seignior Bernini, who soon after married her. In Venice, the Venetian noblemen present eggs to the ladies and nuns, adorned with their portraits curiously limned thereon; and in Germany they have ways of adorning eggs with foliage and other devices, all in transparent work, which is cut out with aquafortis."

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Eggs after the usage of Rome, painted of various colours, and adorned with figures and emblems. These on Easter-day are carried to church to the parish priests, who bless them and sprinkle them with holy water. On that day, at dinner, the cloth is adorned with sweet herbs and flowers, and the first thing that is eaten are these blessed eggs, which are painted by the nuns of Amelia, a small city about thirty miles from Rome. The common sort of these eggs are all of one colour, as yellow, blue, red, or purple, which are sold in the streets till Ascension-day, or Whitsuntide. Anno 1716."

Ornamented Easter eggs were not only considered as offerings of friendship, but chargers filled with eggs having been presented at the church on Easter eve, and duly consecrated, according to the form prescribed in the ritual of Pope Pius the Fifth, a sacred character was imparted to the gift which greatly enhanced its value.

Respecting this custom, (which is prevalent in France at the present day,) we have heard an anecdote related of an honest English traveller, who, unacquainted with the arti

ficial process of colouring these eggs, and seeing many exhibited in the streets of Paris of a deep purple colour, exclaimed with the utmost astonishment, "What colour must their hens be?"

At the present day some remains of this custom are to be found in the north of England, some few of the adepts even taking the pains to saw the shells in half; but the greatest number are distributed whole among the younger branches of the family by their grandmothers and aunts, who provide according to their means against the occasion.

In Cheshire, children go round the village and beg for "an egg, bacon, cheese or an apple, or any good thing to make us merry," and ending with "and I pray you, good dame, an Easter egg." In Cumberland and Westmoreland the same custom prevails, and pask or paste eggs are reciprocally sent from one friend to another. The mode of preparing the eggs is by plunging them in hot water for a few minutes, and then writing a name or drawing an ornament on the shell with tallow; the egg is then boiled in water containing any coloured dye in solution; this colour will not attach itself to the shell in any part which has been covered with grease, and consequently all the ornaments will appear white. Another method, which requires more skill and labour, is to stain the egg of an uniform colour, and scratch out the ornament or name by means of a penknife.

The Easter eggs, which are stained of an uniform colour, afford amusement to the children in a sort of game, in which the strength of the egg-shell is tested. The boy, holding an egg in his hand, challenges a companion to give blow for blow; one of the eggs is sure to be broken, and its shattered remains are the spoil of the conqueror, whose egg assumes a consequence in proportion to the number of times it has escaped unbroken. To obtain an egg, which, when boiled, shall be as hard as possible, the boys are in the habit of watching the hen when she lays, taking the egg immediately from under her, and boiling it at once; by this means the white of the egg becomes harder than if it were boiled at a future time.

Easter Eve used to have, in the old Roman Catholic times, a variety of ceremonies that have long since been

exploded. The fires were quenched in all the churches, and kindled anew from the flint, which being hallowed by the priest every one would take home a brand to be lighted, when occasion required, as a preservative against tempests. A large taper, called the paschal taper, was consecrated and incensed, and allowed to burn night and day as a sign that Christ had conquered hell, after which it was plunged into the holy water, always consecrated at this season, with a view to its lasting till the return of Easter.

Easter-Day; Asturday; Paschal Sabbath; Eucharist; Godde's Sunday-The term Easter is derived, as some say, from the Saxon oster, "to rise," this being the day of Christ's rising from the dead. But as the month appears to have had its name of Easter long before the introduction of Christianity, we must look to some other source for the origin of the term; and where does it seem so visible as in the word Eostre, (the Saxon goddess,) a corruption in all likelihood of Astarte, the name under which the Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and the most ancient nations of the East worshipped the moon, in like manner as they adored the sun, under the name of Baal.

It was customary, also, at this time, for the bishops and archbishops to play at dice or ball with their subordinates, and to lay aside all the pomp and distance belonging to their station, a manifest imitation of the Saturnalia. Moreover, the whole body of the ecclesiastics were now wont to shave the head and beard, to bathe and to indue the white stole; and to each of these actions was supposed to attach a spiritual type,-the use of the bath signifying that the soul should, in like manner, be purified; the shaving, that our vices should be laid aside; while the white vestments might refer either to the appearance of the angels, or to a firm expectation of the robe of immortality; or it might allude to the severity of penance being over. Above all, it was requisite that no one on Easter Day should eat anything that had not been blessed by the priest, or at least without first making the sign of the cross over it; for the devil just then was held to be particularly on the watch for souls.

A variety of sports characterised the Easter holidays among the people. In Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and some other counties, the custom of heaving or

lifting prevailed; the men heaving or lifting the women in a chair on Easter Monday, and the women doing the same by the men on the Tuesday following. At the end of the ceremony, the person lifted was duly kissed by his lifters, and obliged to pay a forfeit. Sometimes this took place within, but more frequently out of doors; the custom in some places being to place the victim upright in a chair, while in others he was laid horizontally on the bearers' hands, and raised above their heads. At another period, or perhaps at a different part of the country, the men took the buckles on Monday from the shoes of the women, who the next day returned the compliment, a forfeit having to be paid in either case for the redemption of the plundered article.

St. Mark's Day, or Eve-was observed, April 25th, not as a fast, but as a day of abstinence, which in the Church of Rome meant very different things.

In Hone's "Every Day Book" we find the following superstitious customs connected with St. Mark's Eve chronicled by a correspondent out of Northamptonshire, in 1826.

"On St. Mark's Eve, it is still a custom about us for young maidens to make a dumb-cake, a mystical ceremony which has lost its origin, and in some counties may have ceased altogether. The number of the party never exceeds three; they meet in silence to make the cake, and as soon as the clock strikes twelve, they each break a portion off to eat, and when done they walk up to bed backwards without speaking a word, for if one speaks the spell is broken. Those that are to be married see the likeness of their sweethearts hurrying after them. If nothing is seen, the desired token may be a knocking at the doors, or a rustling in the house, as soon as they have retired. To be convinced that it comes from nothing else but the desired cause they are always particular in turning out the cats and dogs before the ceremony begins. Those that are to die unmarried neither see nor hear anything; but they have terrible dreams, which are sure to be of new-made graves, winding-sheets, and churchyards, and of rings that will fit no finger; or which if they do, crumble into dust as soon as put on. There is another dumb-ceremony of eating the yolk of an