Jose and I witnessed what must be one of the weirder English traditions yesterday when we took the train to Abingdon and attended the Queen’s jubilee bun throwing.
Abingdon is a small village close to Oxford, which doesn’t have a train station because its inhabitants were too posh to have their town polluted by the stinky coal trains once they were invented. What it does have is a strange tradition whereby the mayor and some councillors gather on the roof of the town hall to throw hundreds of raisin buns onto the plebs whenever there is a royal occasion, like yesterday’s diamond jubilee.
The bun throwing was started in 1760 for the coronation of King George III. What is completely unclear though is why the buns are thrown and not simply handed out. I suspect it to be a cynical way of entertainment for the royals by watching the populace scramble for the buns in the dirt. But today, with the buns made by Tesco and the councillors squeezed into ridiculous costumes, it’s all quite jolly good fun for everyone.
— From back in London.
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elizabite likes this
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nicole-dreambook reblogged this from whileyouweresleeping and added:
LOL That’s a hilarious tradition
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