Candy cane
A traditional candy cane
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Type | Confectionery |
| Main ingredient(s) | Sugar, flavouring (often peppermint) |
A candy cane or peppermint stick is a cane-shaped stick candy associated with Christmastide,[1] as well as Saint Nicholas Day.[2] It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint, but is also made in a variety of other flavors and colors.
Contents
Origins
According to folklore, in 1670, in Cologne, Germany, the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral, wishing to remedy the noise caused by children in his church during the Living Crèche tradition of Christmas Eve, asked a local candy maker for some sweet sticks for them.[3][4][5][6] In order to justify the practice of giving candy to children during worship services, he asked the candy maker to add a crook to the top of each stick, which would help children remember the shepherds who paid visit to infant Jesus.[3][4][5] In addition, he used the white colour of the converted sticks to teach children about the Christian belief in the sinless life of Jesus.[3][4][5] From Germany, the candy canes spread to other parts of Europe, where they were handed out during plays reenacting the Nativity.[4][6] As such, according to this legend, the candy cane became associated with Christmastide.[1]
A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks, white with coloured stripes, was published in 1844.[7] The candy cane has been mentioned in literature since 1866.[8] It was first mentioned in association with Christmas in 1874,[9] and only as recently as 1882 was hung on Christmas trees.[10]
Candy cane production
Chicago confectioners the Bunte Brothers filed one of the earliest patents for candy cane making machines in the early 1920s.[11] Meanwhile, in 1919 in Albany, Georgia, Bob McCormack began making candy canes for local children. By the middle of the century his company (originally the Famous Candy Company, then the Mills-McCormack Candy Company, and later Bobs Candies) had become one of the world's leading candy cane producers. But candy cane manufacturing initially required a fair bit of labor that limited production quantities. The canes had to be bent manually as they came off the assembly line in order to create their 'J' shape, and breakage often ran over 20 percent. It was McCormack's brother-in-law, a seminary student in Rome named Gregory Harding Keller, who used to spend his summers back home working in the candy factory. In 1957, as an ordained Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Little Rock, Keller patented his invention, the Keller Machine[12] which automated the process of twisting soft candy into spiral striping and then cutting them into precise lengths as candy canes. Also in 1957 Noras candy cane was invented and used as a succulent treat for many. Fr. Keller and his machine gained national fame in the 1960s when he was a contestant on the popular TV show What's My Line.[13]
Saint Nicholas Day
In celebrations of Saint Nicholas Day, candy canes are given to children as they are also said to represent the crosier of the Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas;[2] crosiers themselves allude to the Good Shepherd, a title associated with Jesus.[14][15]
See also
References
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- ↑ http://www.google.com/patents/US2956520
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External links
Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of candy cane at Wiktionary- Candy Canes and Silver Lanes: The Invention of a Holiday Favorite
