Candy cane
The candy cane is a hard sweet confection, flavored with peppermint. It is popular in the United States during the Christmas season.
Though the candy cane has been appropriated by secular culture, its origin is full of religious symbolism.
- The candy cane's shape represents a shepherd's staff (referring to the shepherds of the Gospel of Luke). Alternately, it may resemble the staff of Bishop Nicholas of Myra, the true origin of the secular Santa Claus legend.
- When turned upside-down, the candy cane forms a "J" for "Jesus".
- The stripes on the candy cane may represent the Trinity, and may also represent Jesus' bleeding wounds, on a background which is white (symbolizing purity).
The Truth
A candy cane is a hard cane-shaped candy stick. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint (also known as a peppermint stick); however, it is also made in a variety of other flavors and may be decorated with stripes of different colors and thicknesses. The candy cane is a traditional candy surrounding the Christmas holiday in North America, although it is possible to find them throughout the year.
The candy cane was originally a straight, hard, and all-white candy stick invented by French priests in the early 1400s. The cane shape is traditionally credited to a choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany, who, legend has it, in 1670 bent straight sugar sticks into canes to represent a shepherd's staff, and gave them to children at church services[1]. Another theory is that, as people decorated their Yule trees with food, the bent candy cane was invented as a functional solution. Candy with red stripes first appeared in the early 1900s.[2] Postcards before 1900s show only white colored candy canes.
Sources
- [http://www.mooreschapel.org/christmas/candy_cane_3.html The Christmas Tradition
of the Christian Candy Cane]