Good morning. How are you? I wanted to bring you our series sharing Food Holidays: December 27th, 2022 with you. Today is National Candy Cane Day and I don’t know about you but I love the Original Red and White Candy Canes. We also use them to decorate our Christmas Tree with. Do you?
National Candy Cane Day
Everyone knows a lot of things have their own day dedicated to them. One items you may not have known having there own day is the Candy Cane. This veritable symbol of tasty festivity has a dedicated day. If you ever needed an excuse to stockpile Candy Canes or indulge, now you have a reason.
Learn about National Candy Cane Day
The festive period gives us the perfect opportunity to indulge in all of our favorite treats. Make sure you leave room in your stomach for a Candy Canes! Candy Canes have been a tradition for a lot longer than a lot of people realize.
In fact, the Candy Canes beginnings can be traced to the 17th Century in Germany. Typically featuring red and white stripes, the Candy Cane was curved to represent a Shepherd’s Crook. Today, we see Candy Canes on Christmas Trees throughout the festive period, with a lot of people also giving Candy Canes as gifts too.
There are many different Candy Cane flavors released onto the market over the years. The traditional flavor of a Candy Cane is Peppermint. However, you can find Candy Canes in everything from Cherry flavor to Chocolate Candy Canes. There are also many different color combinations too. The red and white striped version is the classic combination, with a lot of stores also stocking red, white, and green Candy Canes.
If you fancy something a bit different, though, you shouldn’t find it too hard to find Candy Canes in other colors. We have also seen some pretty crazy Candy Cane flavors over the year. Including Bacon to Pickle flavor! If you’re looking for a good practical joke to play on one of your friends during Christmas , a Wasabi flavored Candy Cane will do the trick!
We definitely think that National Candy Cane Day is one to be celebrated. Candy Canes remind us that it is the holiday period, and this is the time of the year that most people tend to be happy because they get to spend it with their loved ones. Candy Canes can also remind us of the memories we had as a child. Simply opening the wrapper can take you back to special moments that you shared with your family.
Did you know that there are actually a number of benefits that are associated with Candy Canes? Candy canes are made from Water, Peppermint Oil, and Sugar. These ingredients can serve as a mood booster, as well as aiding digestion and helping with bad breath. In that case, we will take a bunch of Candy Canes.
History of National Candy Cane Day
Candy Canes are so ubiquitous during the Holiday Season that they are practically considered part of Christmas itself. However, very few people know when, where or how Candy Canes came into existence, though it is a very interesting story. According to German folklore, the first Candy Canes were made in the 17th Century when a Choirmaster in Cologne, Germany, needed to find a way to keep the children quiet during the exceptionally long Christmas Eve Mass.
The Choirmaster ordered Peppermint-flavored Candy sticks from a local confectioner, but with a few twists of his own, steeping them in Religious symbolism. Firstly, he requested the sticks to be in the shape we know them so they could be a visual representation of sorts of the canes that the Shepherds coming to visit the baby Jesus might have had. Some also say that when turned upside-down, the Candy Cane becomes the letter J, which stands for Jesus.
Furthermore, the choirmaster asked for the sticks to be white (to represent the sinless, pure life Jesus lived) and red (to represent the blood Jesus lost when he was crucified for the sins of mankind). Of course, there is no solid evidence for this. Modern Candy Cane historians, or whoever looked into it, have disputed the ideas presented here. Luckily, however, you can enjoy the Candy Cane on National Candy Cane Day with or without this kind of expert knowledge.
How to Celebrate National Candy Cane Day
It is quite hard to make your own Candy Canes if you are not an experienced confectioner and chances are that attempts will result in more of a mess than anything else.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
