Candy cane

Candy cane

A traditional candy cane
Alternative names Santa's Cane
Type Confectionery
Place of origin England
Creator St. Nicolas
Main ingredients Sugar, flavouring (often peppermint)
Cookbook: Candy cane  Media: Candy cane

A candy cane or peppermint stick is a cane-shaped stick candy often 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.

Origins

An early image of candy canes

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 visited the 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, 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. 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 to create their 'J' shape and breakage often ran over 20 percent. McCormack's brother-in-law, Gregory Harding Keller, was a seminary student in Rome who spent his summers working in the candy factory back home. In 1957, Keller, as an ordained Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Little Rock, patented his invention, the Keller Machine,[12] which automated the process of twisting soft candy into spiral striping and cutting it into precise lengths as candy canes. Also in 1957 the Noras candy cane was invented and used as a succulent treat. 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 Saint Nicholas Day celebrations, candy canes are given to children as they are also said to represent the crosier of the Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas;[2] crosiers allude to the Good Shepherd, a title associated with Jesus.[14][15]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Hartel, Richard W.; Hartel, AnnaKate (28 March 2014). Candy Bites: The Science of Sweets. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 53. ISBN 9781461493839. Retrieved 8 January 2015. The candy cane is said to have its origins at Christmas time in Germany circa 1670. A church choirmaster in Cologne gave sticks of hard candy with a crook at the end to the children in his choir to keep them quiet during long Christmas services.
  2. 1 2 American Christmas Tree Journal. National Christmas Tree Association. 2005. p. 40. St. Nicholas Day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death in 343 A.D. The candy cane is said to represent the crozier, or bishop's staff, of St. Nicholas.
  3. 1 2 3 R. O. Parker (19 October 2001). Introduction to Food Science. Delmar. Retrieved 17 December 2011. In 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral gave sugar sticks to his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Creche ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into the shepherds crooks. In 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard of Wooster, Ohio, decorated a small pine tree with paper ornaments and candy canes.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Helen Haidle (2002). Christmas Legends to Remember. David C. Cook. Retrieved 17 December 2011. Around 1670, a choirmaster of a cathedral in Cologne, Germany, handed out sugar sticks to his young singers. At Christmas, in honor of the birth of Jesus, the choirmaster bent the sugar sticks at one end, forming the shape of a shepherd's crook. These white candy canes helped keep the children quiet during the long Christmas Eve Nativity service. From Germany, the use of candy shepherds' staffs spread across Europe, where plays of the Christmas Nativity were accompanied by gifts of the sweet "shepherds' crooks."
  5. 1 2 3 Ace Collins (20 April 2010). Great Traditions of Christmas. Zondervan. Retrieved 17 December 2011. Church history records that in 1670 the choirmaster at Germany's Cologne Cathedral was faced with a problem that still challenges parents, teachers, and choir directors today. In ancient Cologne, as well as in thousands of churches today, the children in the choir often grew restless and noisy during the long services. He sought out a local candy maker, and after looking over the treats in his shop, the music leader paused in front of some white sweet sticks. Yet the choirmaster wondered if the priests and parents would allow him to give the children in his choir candy to eat during a church service. The choirmaster asked the candy maker if he could bend the sticks and make a crook at the top of each one. The candy would not be just a treat; it would be a teaching tool. The choirmaster decided that the candy's pure white color would represent the purity of Christ. The crook would serve as a way for the children to remember the story of the shepherds who came to visit the baby Jesus. The shepherds carried staffs or canes, and with the hook at the top of the stick, the candy now looked like a cane.
  6. 1 2 It's Christmas Season: My, How Sweet It Is!. The Milwaukee Journal. 13 December 1968. Retrieved 20 December 2011. In 1670, a choirmaster at Germany's Cologne cathedral bent the ends of some sugar sticks to represent shepherds' crooks, and distributed them to youngsters. The practice spread.
  7. ↑ The complete confectioner, pastry ... – Eleanor Parkinson – Google Books. Books.google.ca. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  8. ↑ Ballou's monthly magazine – Google Books. Books.google.ca. 1977-04-29. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  9. ↑ The Nursery – Google Books. Books.google.ca. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  10. ↑ Babyland – Charles Stuart Pratt – Google Books. Books.google.ca. 2004-06-30. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  11. ↑ "Patent US1680440 – CANDY-FORMING MACHINE – Google Patents". Google. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  12. ↑ http://www.google.com/patents/US2956520
  13. ↑ "Origin of the Candy Cane". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2013-12-22.
  14. ↑ Karambai, Sebastian S. (1 January 2005). Ministers and Ministries in the Local Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Ecclesiastical Norms. The Bombay Saint Paul Society. p. 41. ISBN 9788171097258. Retrieved 8 January 2015. The crosier (pastoral staff) is the symbol of the office of the Good Shepherd, who watches over and leads with care the flock entrusted to him by the Holy Spirit.
  15. ↑ Webb, Val (30 September 2010). Stepping Out with the Sacred. A&C Black. p. 79. ISBN 9781441196422. Retrieved 8 January 2015. The image of Jesus as the good shepherd spoke volumes to the early Church as a metaphor for Divine care such that bishops, in time, carried a shepherd's crook (crosier) with its hooked end to symbolize “pastoral” care (pastoral meaning “of or relating to shepherds or herders”)— interestingly, the hook on some crosiers ends in a snake's head.

External links

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