Easter, a time for eating and giving

As part of a project on Christian traditions of feasting and fasting, theologians at the University have been exploring these customs and their relevance to modern eating habits.  The Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project has found that everyday decisions about food and diet possess deep spiritual, social and economic significance.

The soft and spongy hot cross buns eaten today would have been illegal in the run-up to Easter until 1538.  This is because Easter was preceded by Lent, a fasting period more than six weeks long whose strict rules were enforced by law.  Dairy products including eggs and butter, essential ingredients of modern hot cross buns, were banned for the whole of Lent.  Until then, hot cross buns were therefore more like a currant bread roll.  In 1538 the fasting rules were relaxed by King Henry VIII and this made possible the buns we enjoy today.

Yet hot cross buns remained controversial because of their catholic symbolism, due partly to the pastry cross on top.  They were also linked with the catholic Eucharistic bread, which on Good Friday was not blessed in church as usual but saved from the previous day.  Many people believed that hot cross buns baked on Good Friday possessed miraculous powers, such as lasting a year without going mouldy, or protecting houses from fire or boats from shipwreck.  These beliefs pointed to the central event Christians remember at Easter: the miraculous rising of Jesus from the dead.  Dr David Grumett, a theologian from the University of Exeter, explained, ‘The rising of the bun in the oven reminded them of this new life.  The action of the yeast was equally inexplicable and seemed miraculous.’

People today often see Easter eggs as also symbolising new life.  Spring is indeed a time of birth and renewal, ideas linked to both nature religions and the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians celebrate at Easter.  Dr Grumett added, ‘These interpretations, while not wrong, are only a small part of the story.  The real reason for the exchange of Easter eggs is more practical.’

Before people were allowed to eat eggs in Lent, they amassed a large supply as they obviously couldn’t stop their hens producing.  Eggs were therefore the ideal Easter giveaway, using up the glut accumulated during Lent.  They were often hard boiled to aid preservation and might also have comprised part of the rent that tenants were required to pay their landlord.  They sometimes formed a portion of the tithe payable to the church, which was maintained by taxation rather than voluntary giving.

Dr Grumett said, ’What is intriguing is just how long the Easter exchange of eggs has continued after it became legal to eat them during Lent.  This meant that, when Easter finally arrived, eggs were no longer a special treat.  Yet five centuries later we are still exchanging them.  This shows just how stubbornly Christian customs persist in modern, supposedly secular Britain.’

In previous centuries many people expressed their spirituality through the practicalities of their daily lives, especially the foods they ate.  Traditions surrounding these were important, and a complex pattern of feasts and fasts evolved that was linked with the church calendar, the Bible and the natural seasonal cycle.

Nowadays at Easter, although most of us would prefer to be given a chocolate egg than one hard boiled a month previously, historic observances surrounding the feast persist.  We continue to express ourselves spiritually through acts of gift-giving and hospitality, and these very often involve food.