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| Candy Canes are fun and tasty! |
In the 20th century, the candy cane became fairly synonymous with Christmas. Today we see the candy canes illustrated on cards, trees, billboards, and there are even supersized wooden versions affixed to lamp posts on city streets. The candy cane is interesting because like many Christmas symbols it has a quasi-Christian introduction as a part of the holiday but gets a pass from those who wish to ban public Christmas symbolism because of its secular appeal.
Most historians agree that for as long as sugar has been available, people have found interesting ways to enjoy it including creating a manner of heating it and forging it by hand and cutting it into small sticks. Sugar had been used for baking and to sweeten teas and other beverages for some time by those who could afford it.
For our purposes, we know that it was introduced in 1670 by the choir director of the Cologne Cathedral who handed out sugar sticks to encourage children to remain quiet during services. Although it can be verified, it is rumored that he took the unusual step of bending the sticks into hooked canes.
Whether or not he did so with the knowledge of bending them into the shape of shepherds staffs as a metaphoric reference to the good shepherd Jesus Christ, or simply so the children could hang them on the pews, or for mere decorative purposes is not known. We do know that the tradition of bribing children with sugar canes was successful as the tradition continued for many years.
The candy canes of the day were pure white. They were adorned to yule trees and were used to decorate Christmas Trees in the 18th Century when the Tannenbaum was introduced into German homes and public displays. Besides candy canes, these trees were decorates with other sweets created by candy-makers or confectioners of the time.
We also know that the introduction of the stripes onto the candy cane came in the 20th century. We know this because even Christmas cards and photographs preceding 1900 show only white hooked candy canes. It is also believed that creative confectioners through experimentation introduced peppermint flavor into the sugar mix to enhance the flavor of the canes beginning in 1859.
In the 1920s its reported that Robert McCormick, a Georgia candy maker, would create candy canes by hand for friends and family. About 1950, McCormick's brother in law, a Catholic Priest, Father Gregory Keller created a machine that increased the speed of the mass production of the candy cane. Bobbies Candies had the cornerstone on this process which allowed them to ship candy canes across the country.
A popular urban legend tells the tale that the candy cane was fashioned in the letter "J" to represent the first letter in the name of Jesus Christ, the white of the cane is said to symbolize purity, and the red stripes symbolize the blood Christ spilled when he died on the cross for our salvation. Of course, this is really a matter of present day Christians creating an adaptive tale for young children as a supplement to Christian teaching.
If you are interested, please look at this youtube video which shows the manual process of making sugar canes.
The original blog article can found at my blog Random Selection which is located at www.randsel.blogspot.com
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