Our hot cross bun tradition began with pagan Saxons honouring the goddess Eostre.  The cross represented the rebirth of the world after winter, the four quarters of the moon, the four seasons and possibly how many pieces a bun could be feasibly cut, toasted, buttered and shared for afternoon tea.

As paganism gave way to Christianity Eostre evolved into Easter, the cross of the four seasons morphed into Jesus’ crucifix.  And I’m not sure how but chocolaty rabbits and eggs somehow made the belief system leap prompting hard-to-answer questions from young children around basic evolutionary concepts, egg transport logistics and cross species reproduction.

Now we would be resting on our laurels if we thought our belief systems and our hot cross buns would not evolve any further, so I’ve given some thought to possible hot cross bun futures (please note; due to the author’s disastrous HTML programming skills the following passages includes the replacement of images with words, which depending on your particular learning style may add or detract to the enjoyment of this newsletter).

Arguably the online social space is our contemporary temple and it’s only a matter of time before a technology and food singularity makes it possible for social media to be actually baked into hot<imagine a Facebook “like” symbol here>buns, hot<imagine a Twitter logo here>buns and hot<imagine an Instagram “love” button here> buns.

Or perhaps our evolving cultural beliefs during this coming Asian century will shift towards hot<imagine yin & yang here>buns.  Alternatively, declining church attendances and growing feelings of hopelessness in the face of an environmental armageddon could give rise nihilistic-style hot<imagine pirate party logo here>buns.

More likely though in a world dominated by brands none would be “more cleverer” at lowering our anti-corporate defences than everyone’s favourite Scandinavian plastic block maker and who honestly will be able to resist their kids begging for hot<imagine yellow Legohead>buns?

Or scarily if Trumpism takes hold of the world and attempts to “Make Easter Great Again” will we sink to hot<imagine icon of woman’s barely clad bottom here>buns or NRA sponsored hot<imagine semi-automatic rifle image here>buns?

Well who knows where our ever-evolving psycho-spirtual-corporate hot cross bun journey will take us?  And is it even worth worrying about when life is fleeting and there are so many (so many) perfectly good buns to be eaten right here and now. Reminds me of the first verse from that sacred Easter hymn,  “Always look on the bright side of life”

Some things in life are bad,
They can really make you mad.
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle,
Don’t grumble, give a whistle!
And this’ll help things turn out for the best……

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