By Hilary White

IPSWICH, February 7, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The UK’s mania for political correctness has struck again where a school has banned hot cross buns, a traditional sweet pastry associated with Good Friday. A representative of Oaks Primary School in Ipswich, said the buns, which include two strips of decorative icing intersecting in the middle, might offend Jehovah’s Witnesses who attend the school.

Hot cross buns, a spicy currant or raisin studded yeast bun, topped with a “Cross” of lemon-flavored icing, have been a feature of English culture since the Middle Ages.

The Suffolk Evening Star reported that the head teacher of the school, Tina Jackson, asked the supplier to provide the buns without the crosses. “Obviously, the hot cross bun is a celebration of Easter but it is not Easter yet,” she told the paper. Jackson did not say whether she would expel students who chanted the traditional English nursery rhyme, “One a penny; two a penny; hot cross buns.”

The local pastor of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation applauded the school’s decision. “I can understand why the school has done this and I support the decision. Hot cross buns are a pagan symbol of fertility no different to bunnies, eggs and Easter. The Bible states we should not worship things of a pagan origin.”

No information was available about what sort of services the school had been planning to allow students to worship the buns or whether they had been cancelled. Moreover, the school did not say whether the buns would be inspected by the local Muslim of Catholic authorities for possible accidental appearances of religious figures in the patterns formed by the currants in the buns.

Contact info for the school:
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The Oaks Community Primary
01473 684994
Aster Rd
Ipswich, IP2 0NR, United Kingdom

Click here for a recipe for hot cross buns:
https://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/breads/yeast/hotcrossbun.html