Title: Hot Cross Buns
General Information:
- Verbal lore: song
- English
- American
- Children
- Rhyme
Informant data:
- Mariel Gordon is freshman at dartmouth, graduating in 2021. She was born and raised in Dallas Texas. She attended a public high school in Plano Texas. Mariel plays soccer at Dartmouth and has played her entire life. When Mariel told me this piece of folklore she was happy to retell the story. Mariel has one older brother who also was told this nursery rhyme by their parents. Mariel is interested in film and learning more about directing film as well as sociology.
Contextual Context:
- Social Context:
- I collected thing nursery rhyme in the library during on a Thursday and there was not a lot of people there so Mariel was very open with her sharing. The last time Mariel heard this nursery rhyme was about 5 years, when she was around 12. Her mom and her dad always sang to her Hot Cross Buns before eating breakfast on most Sundays. She would eat pancakes and eggs on Sunday’s when she would sing this nursery rhyme. The only thing that really connected her to this nursery rhyme was the breakfast that came with it. She shared this nursery rhyme with her brother and her little cousins. She also heard this nursery rhyme when she was learning to play the base in her middle school orchestra.This was the first song she completely learned how to play on the base.
- Cultural Context:
- The two different contexts to the song has given Mariel two different ways to view this Nursery rhyme. She originally remembered the song as a happy memory, but then when she heard the song in school and associated the song with learning the base she grew to dislike the sone. Different contexts can make people change their opinions on nursery rhymes.
Item:
“Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns”
Informants opinion:
- “I used to love this nursery rhyme as a child because it signified food, but as soon as I was forced to learn it and become good at laying this nursery rhyme on the base I hated it. It became a chore”
Collectors comments:
- It is important to recognize the shift in opinion of the rhyme. Rhymes are not always beloved songs children here. People hear them all the time and become over absorbed in them and learn to dislike them. It was unfortunate that a childhood memory got ruined but another bad memory.
Collected by Avery Schuldt
Collected by Avery Schuldt