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history of the candy cane |
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by Dan Sweigert from our December 2006 Newsletter |
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| My hometown of Bluffton, SC just had a Christmas parade. If the kids didn’t already have enough candy left over from Halloween, they certainly cashed in on all the sugary projectiles flying out of the colorfully decorated floats. Eager little hands grabbed up everything from bubble gum, to candy bars, to suckers, to that most classic of edible Christmas décor, the candy cane. |
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| Now, although all of us here at J&A would like to think the shape of the candy cane was designed to symbolize the “j” in our logo, I suspected there must be a different, yet equally interesting explanation for its curious shape. So I did some research... |
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| Do you know your polkagris capital? |
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| The first candy canes were simple white sugar sticks with no colored stripes. Peppermint candy with red stripes first appeared in the mid 1800s in Gränna, Sweden, which became known as the "polkagris (translated: candy cane) capital of the world". |
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| Certain poor shepherds... |
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| While stripes on candy canes didn't come along until the early 1900s, their shape can be traced back to about 1670 in the Cologne Cathedral, where restless youngsters were attending ceremonies around the living creche. To keep them quiet, the choirmaster handed out sticks of candy in the shape of Shepherds' crooks. |
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| Read on... |
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