One of the UK’s largest supermarket chains has introduced a run of hot ‘tick’ buns, removing the Christian cross from the traditional Easter treat of hot cross buns and sparking ire from religious groups.
Iceland’s head of development, David Lennox, said that according to their internal research, 1 in 5 customers would like to see the symbol on hot cross buns replaced with something else. The sweet spiced treat is traditionally eaten in the UK on Good Friday as a tradition dating back over 350 years.
“It seems some people want to do away with the cross design and move to a tick instead,” Lennox said. “The results surprised us, but in true British fashion we’re putting it to the test by trialling ticks on some of our buns. Despite these being a limited run, it will be interesting to see if the British public take a liking to buttering their ticked buns,” he concluded, adding that “of course never get rid of the original and much-loved Easter staple!”
Speaking to the Sun, Danny Webster, the director of advocacy at Evangelical Alliance, argued that “Easter is when Christians across the globe remember that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave,” and that “whatever Iceland choose to put on their buns, Christians will continue to declare the truth of the cross that Jesus is alive.”
Simon Calvert, deputy director of The Christian Institute, said: “The glorious truth behind the celebration of Easter is that Christ died on the cross for sins and then rose from the dead to conquer death.
“As others have said, Christians will continue to proclaim this marvellous good news regardless of what Iceland puts on its buns. My advice is: this Easter Sunday, instead of buying hot cross buns, go to church.”
On Friday morning, Iceland executive chairman Richard Walker posted on X, supposedly giving an update to the furor.
“Big shout out to trendsetters Rees Mogg and 30p Lee for bigging up Iceland’s hot ‘tick’ buns,” Walker wrote. “They weren’t for real btw lads – and sales of our devout and trad hot cross buns were up 134% yesterday.”
Despite Walker’s assertion that the buns “weren’t for real,” a number of news outlets, including the Telegraph, confirmed that Iceland had, in fact, sold the hot tick buns as a limited run in a number of stores across the country.
