The tradition of bun throwing in Abingdon
Vee and I spent today in Abingdon visiting our Chinese ‘family’: Zhihao, Hua and five year old Joshua. Abingdon claims to be the oldest continuously populated town in Britain with people living there for some 6,000 years. Certainly it is very proud of its history and traditions.
Two weeks ago, the Abingdon County Hall Museum was reopened and this afternoon we visited the museum which has three floors of exhibits and a wonderful viewing vantage from the roof. I was fascinated to learn that Abingdon has a tradition of fruit bun throwing from the building which stretches back as far as 1760. All sorts of national and royal events have been marked in this way. This strikes me as being such a very English activity and, as a lover all things sweet, I think it is a wonderful idea.
We had a good lunch at a Lebanese restaurant called “Lemon Grove” where we were served by a guy who is a Christian Syrian. Throughout our meal, the restaurant played the haunting music of Fairuz. Just over a year ago, Vee and I visited Syria and Lebanon [an account of our trip here] and the meal reminded us of that happy time before the revolution broke out in Syria a couple of weeks later.
July 22nd, 2012 at 7:30 pm
At whom or what are these fruit buns thrown? Any lucky passer-by or are they just rained on the unsuspecting and unaware general public?
July 22nd, 2012 at 8:51 pm
The local citizenry gather in the square below the County Hall to receive this bounty from Heaven. Apparently it’s a very popular event.