The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1883-03-23
4tliscrllaucnus.
Good Friday.


HIS obsefShntpS ana SUperStittOnS.
Good Friday, though the most solemn day
in the Christian calandar, has associated with
it, in speaking countries, many OBJ
serVances more festive than solemn and Il
number of superstitious ideas. More closely
Identified with Good Friday than anything
else in England and her dependencies is the
hot cross bun--and that universally From
the very earliest days and in all known sacri-
fetal religions bread and cake have been en-
pl0ycd during the sacred seasons and fesli-
walls. The Jewish shew- bread and unleaycn-
ed bread are instances, and the cakes made ito
the Queen of Heaven by the idolalrOus Jew
esscs and reprehended by jeremiah The
Egytiaus, the Pcrsians, the Greeks and the
Romans also offered cakes and ether articles
Of food to their gods
According to most of the hooks on popular
antiquities the oldest sacred bread offered 10
the gods was the mum or oX-cake, described
rs "a cake with Il representation of two
horns, made of tine -four and honey" From
hmm comes the English bun. In the Vatican
Museum is an early tablet depicting the
miracle of the five bailey loaves which in
shape and marking precisely represents the
buns which will be eaten by myriads 10 day
The hot cross bun with hardly n doubt came
into England with Christianity and was long
regarded rs commemorative of the bread
lroken at the Last Supper. For two per.
sons to break bread together to day is re
gardcd ms Il security against disagreement rs
well as II pledge Of umiiy. For age $ it has been
Tie practice of the supcrslitious 10 keep II
Good Friday bun through the year for good
luck and a charm against fire and lightning
Strung on cord above the door it is as t1R-
.caciuus rs any horseshoe for the discourage
mcnt of evil spirits; grated in water it cures
sore-ihroat and darrhma in the human sub
icct and "scours" in calves. In short there
is infinite virtue in your hot cross bun.
The cross upon the bun, though taken as
symbolizing the Passion, is really as old as
Pagan Greece and Rome. The Romans
divided their sacred cakes with lines inter
secting each other in the centre at right an
giles into quadra; loaves marked with such
cross have been eXlumed at .Herculancum
The Church simply adapted the cakes and
gave them Christian meaning.
On Good Friday, in the North of England
an herb pudding, in which the leaves of the
passion.dock (I1lNg0nHm diStOrtum) are the
principal ingredient, is an indispensable dish
In North Lancashire il is customary TO eat
Good Sue, Il mixture of ale, sliced figs, bread
and nutmeg, boiled togeheran eaten hot like
soup, while in other parts of Lancashire Good
Friday gets the name of "Cracklin FRIDAY"
for then the children go from house 10 house
to beg small wheaton cakes, something like
the Hebrews Passover cake, but richer, hay
ing butter or lard mixed with the flour Good
Friday of old was the day on which the
Kings of England with great ceremony hal
lowed rings for the cure of epilepsy and
cramp. The snpersilious belief in the cur,.-
tive power of cramp rings made out of GER
tain pieces of silver procured under particu-
lar circumstances still fingers in some places
In, Rpr l.uhi 10 hot -, L.,
from a piece oisilvrr collected at the COM
munion, not on Good Friday only but ON
any occasion, is n cure for commissions and
fits ofeyery kind This notion is not un.
common in Dey0nshire and Cornwall Hunt,
in his popular RomanCes of the West of
England records the case OF II paralytjc wo.
man who one Sunday morning at the church
door presented her wilhercd arm and palm
without n word, received thirty pennies from
the charitable of the congregation; then got
the rector to change the coppers for silver
and walked thrice round the communion
table, in the confident hope that three weeks
after the halfcrown had been made into n
ring she would recover the use of her arm
Good Friday is the day for the sowing of
parsley seed, if double crop is desired -
Now also are peas to be sown, no matter how
unmvorable the weather may seem II rain
should fall to-day unless the Germans are
extremely al fault, the turf will thrice be
perched with drought within the next twelve.
months
wet Good Friday and Saturday
Brings plenty of grass but no hay,
in Lincolnshire, England at least 1t is I'M
lucky To make love 10 Lancashire lass on
Good Friday, and misfortune attends the
folks of NorIhamplonshirc who bake or brew
to-day. In the Isle of Man no iron must he
NJ int, In fira hnt n t;,,ly & vi.