''Hot Cross Buns'' was an English

street cry Street Cry (11 March 1998 – 17 September 2014) was a Thoroughbred racehorse, winner of the 2002 Dubai World Cup, the 2002 Stephen Foster Handicap and runner up in the 2002 Whitney Handicap. He was an international shuttle stallion that stood ...

, later perpetuated as a

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

and an aid in musical education. It refers to the spiced English confection known as a

hot cross bun A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, and has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, India, Pakistan and ...

, which is associated with the end of

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

and is eaten on

Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...

in various countries. The song has a

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

number of 13029. The most common modern version is:

I. Opie and P. Opie Iona Margaret Balfour Opie, (13 October 1923 – 23 October 2017) and Peter Mason Opie (25 November 1918 – 5 February 1982) were an English married team of folklorists who applied modern techniques to understanding children's literature and ...

, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951), p. 197. \relative c'' \addlyrics

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!

Variant uses

During the 18th century there was no standard version of the rhyme, which was sung on Good Friday to accompany the selling of the buns. The London street cry, for example, is recorded in ''

Poor Robin's Almanack ''Poor Robin'' was an English 17th and 18th-century satirical almanac series, appearing as ''Poor Robin's Almanack'' from 1663. Other similar writings by the pseudonymous Poor Robin were published later, in America and into the 19th century. Origi ...

'' for 1733, which noted: Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs, With one or two a penny hot cross buns. A variant on this was collected by

Iona and Peter Opie Iona Margaret Balfour Opie, (13 October 1923 – 23 October 2017) and Peter Mason Opie (25 November 1918 – 5 February 1982) were an English married team of folklorists who applied modern techniques to understanding children's literature and ...

in their compilation of 19th century children’s booklets: 'Tis Good Friday morning, the little boy runs, Along with his sister, to buy hot cross buns; Her apron is full, yet her brother, the elf, Unsatisfied still, must buy one for himself. The words closest to the rhyme that has survived were printed as a

round Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere * Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...

in the ''

London Chronicle The ''London Chronicle'' was an early family newspaper of Georgian London. It was a thrice-a-week evening paper, introduced in 1756, and contained world and national news, and coverage of artistic, literary, and theatrical events in the capital. ...

'' for 2–4 June 1767. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross-buns; If you’ve no daughters, give them to your sons; And if you’ve no kind of pretty little elves, Why then good faith, e’en eat them all yourselves.

James Orchard Halliwell James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (born James Orchard Halliwell; 21 June 1820 – 3 January 1889) was an English Shakespearean scholar, antiquarian, and a collector of English nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Life The son of Thomas Halliwell, he ...

recorded a similar rhyme in his ''The Nursery Rhymes of England'' (London 1846) with the final line changed to “You cannot do better than to eat them yourselves”. Yet another street cry was recorded by Halliwell in his dialect dictionary as common in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

on Good Friday: One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns, Butter them and sugar them and put them in your muns (i.e. mouths) and a further, different cry was later recorded by Iona Opie: Hot cross buns, hot cross buns; One a penny poker, Two a penny tongs, Three a penny fire shovel, Hot cross buns. After the street cry had made the transition to nursery use, it was also commonly used in music classes and schools for young children trying to master a new instrument, continuing as such to this day.''The Oxford Handbook of Assessment Policy and Practice in Music'', Oxford University Press 2019
vol. 2
/ref>

References

{{authority control Street cries English folk songs English children's songs Traditional children's songs English nursery rhymes Songwriter unknown Year of song unknown