Soon one of the most beautiful and magical dates of the whole year will arrive, such as Christmas. And in all countries and cities we see the decoration, the lights throughout the town and how could it be otherwise the typical Christmas candy canes. But do you know what they mean? The truth is that we all associate canes with Christmas, but we don’t know the reason we don’t even know where they come from.
The history and origin of many of the Christmas traditions have a great importance in history, that is why we are going to tell you everything that is known about the origin of Christmas candy canes.
Origin of candy canes
The first thing is to talk about the candy cane, which is a sweet with the shape that its name indicates, a cane, and that is made from hard candy. The combination of its colors is usually white with red stripes, although on certain occasions these stripes can also be green. The flavors can be very different, while it is normal that taste like mintthere are those that taste like strawberry, even cinnamon, and you can see them in different thicknesses and sizes.
The reality is that today there is no official document where they explain their origin, there are only theories and while some seem crazy or simply do not sound credible, there are others that seem to have some basis to take them into account.
One of the theories says that the candies already existed, but that it was around the beginning of the 20th century when the colors began to be given to the canes, since before they were only white and were not always used as sweets.
Some say that these canes could have their origin in the United States, since they can be seen in coastal maritime signals from older times, although their meaning would clearly be different. In fact, in the US they are still in the entrances of some barbershops.
Another theory, this time from Germany, says that the cane was simply a candy that had that shape to make it easier to eat. But if there is a German theory that has some support, it is one that occurs in the year 1670, where a choirmaster, from the Cologne Cathedral, shaped the candy to symbolize what a shepherd was and what he broadcast, so that when he gave it to the children he gave them a little lesson.
On the other hand, in Sweden, there is a story where it is told that a young widow of only 25 years, known as Amalia Eriksson, began to make candy to survive both she and her orphan daughter. She was able to obtain a license to manufacture, something unbecoming of the year 1859, and with an unknown recipe she began to sell them, having above all much success among sailors, as they used it as a medicine and were given the nickname Polkagrisar. Its success was such that it spread throughout the country and its sales did not decline until the appearance of other industrial Christmas sweets, such as chocolate bonbons or caramelized fruit, among many others.
Why do we associate candy canes with Christmas?
On many occasions it is believed that the origin and meaning of candy canes have a close relationship with religion, where its white color is linked to the Virgin, for its purity; the red color to the blood of Christ and the shape will not be simulating a cane, but the capital J of Jesus. In addition, in the United States of America there is a widespread myth in which its manufacturer, a man from Indiana, wanted to honor the birth of Jesus at Christmas.
Due to all the historical references to the candy cane going back to the 18th century, it is evident that this is not a real possibility. Not only that, but it was also said that Christians used them to decorate houses at Christmas secretly, but this makes no sense because the Christians were not being persecuted, that goes back many centuries.
The most popular legend of the origin places it in the cathedral of the German city of Cologne, which is the one we have told you about previously. It is said that in the eighteenth century a choirmaster commissioned a pastry chef to make candy for the children of the city, as they made a lot of noise around the cathedral during the Christmas celebrations. The teacher supposedly asked for them to be shaped like a cane, to remind the children of the shepherds who visited the Child Jesus, or to symbolize Christ himself in the role of his shepherd.
If there is one thing that is clear, it is that these candies they were created in the 18th century in central Europe and on the shores of Sweden until he reached the United States on one of many voyages. It was from the 20th century on that candy canes began to be associated with Christmas, surely because of their colors and because they are sweet.
The original and curious thing is that this candy had to be folded manually when it was hot to give it the typical shape of the cane, which made it a more expensive candy and at the same time slower to make, so it was not so easy to see them many years ago or that’s why they were expensive. It was precisely a Catholic priest, Gregory Harding Keller, who created the machine that he baptized with his name in order to automate the process to give the candies their characteristic cane-like appearance and not increase their price so much.
In this way, it seems that all the stories that want to give a meaning and christian origin to candy canes are just popular legends. Possibly the exact origin does not have any specific origin or important meaning, although the truth is that both the colors and the shape make it the ideal sweet for these Christmas dates.
In addition to being used as candy, they have the perfect shape to decorate our Christmas trees or for all the furniture in our house, in addition to their colors, as they can be different, they are perfect as decorative elements. Likewise, if you don’t like the ones that taste like mint, you can look for the other flavors and eat some candy canes as a family to celebrate Christmas.