The Candy Cane

About this time of year I always wonder how some of the customs of the season came to be! Last year I did a blog on christmas tree lights, Rudolph, and the NYC Christmas Tree, today I was thinking about candy canes ... so decided to do some research! That is why I love my computer! There is an answer to "almost" all questions!

Around the seventeenth century, European-Christians began to adopt the use of Christmas trees as part of their Christmas celebrations. They made special decorations for their trees from foods like cookies and sugar-stick candy. The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes back to 1670, when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar-sticks into canes to represent a shepherd's staff. The all-white candy canes were given out to children during the long-winded nativity services.

The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America goes back to 1847, when a German immigrant called August Imgard decorated the Christmas tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with candy canes.

BUT WHY The Stripes???
About fifty years later the first red-and-white striped candy canes appeared. No one knows who exactly invented the stripes, but Christmas cards prior to the year 1900 showed only all-white candy canes. Christmas cards after 1900 showed illustrations of striped candy canes. Around the same time, candy-makers added peppermint and wintergreen flavors to their candy canes and those flavors then became the traditional favorites.

Sweet Secrets of the Candy Cane
There are many other legends and beliefs surrounding the humble candy cane. Many of them depict the candy cane as a secret symbol for Christianity used during the times when Christian were living under more oppressive circumstances. It was said that the cane was shaped like a "J" for Jesus. The red-and-white stripes represented Christ's blood and purity. The three red stripes symbolized the Holy Trinity. The hardness of the candy represented the Church's foundation on solid rock and the peppermint flavor represented the use of hyssop, an herb referred to in the Old Testament. There is no historical evidence to support these claims, quite the contrary, but they are lovely thoughts.

A Catholic priest called Gregory Keller invented a machine to automate candy cane production during the 1950's.

Sooooo the next time you suck on one of those bad boys you can relate your knowledge of these canes to the rest of the candy cane suckers/lickers!!

I heard Santa said this ....
The night Santa first met his future wife, he uttered the now famous words:
"Yes, that is a candy cane in my pocket, and I am glad to meet you."
Hey .... don't shoot the messenger!!!