Hot Cross Buns

"Hot Cross Buns" is an English language nursery rhyme, Easter song and street cry referring to the spiced English bun associated with Good Friday known as a Hot Cross Bun. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13029.

Lyrics

The most common modern version is:

	Hot Cross Buns Tune for Hot Cross Buns
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
one a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!^[1]

1. ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 197.

If you have no daughters, give them to your sons. One a penny two a penny, Hot cross buns!^[1]

Origins

The earliest record of the rhyme is in Christmas Box, published in London in 1798.^[1] However, there are earlier references to the rhyme as a street cry, for example in Poor Robin's Almanack for 1733, which noted:

Good Friday come this month, the old woman runs
With one or two a penny hot cross buns.^[1]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Opie1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

The tune

There is one version. This version features a 3-note descending stepwise sequence; other versions are noted but are not used by standard day practices.

Notes

Nursery rhymes (list) "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" "Frère Jacques" "Hey Diddle Diddle" "Hickory Dickory Dock" "Hot Cross Buns" "Humpty Dumpty" "Hush, Little Baby" "I'm a Little Teapot" "It's Raining, It's Pouring" "Itsy Bitsy Spider" "Jack and Jill" "Little Boy Blue" "London Bridge Is Falling Down" "Mary Had a Little Lamb" "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" "Mulberry Bush" "Pat-a-cake" "Pop Goes the Weasel" "Ring a Ring o' Roses" "Rock-a-bye Baby" "Roses are red" "Row Your Boat" "Sticks and Stones" "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" "This Little Piggy" "This Old Man" "Three Blind Mice" "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"