CHRISTINGLE, CHRISTMAS CANDY CANE & GINGERBREAD

Hello ladies and gentleman!!

If I have decided to write about Christmas and sweets, it is because everybody loves both whatever the reasons are.

I am going to start with the traditional Christingle. First of all, what is that?

The story of Christingle said that three poor children wanted to give a gift to Jesus, like the other families were doing at the church. But, the only thing that they had was an orange and they decided to give him that. The top of the orange was green, so the eldest of the boys decided to cut it and put a candle in the hole. The youngest girl thought that the orange looked dull, so she decided to take her red ribbon from her hair and put it round the middle with toothpicks. The middle child had an idea and put small pieces of dry fruit on the ends of the sticks. They took it to the church and the priest took their gift and showed it as example of true understanding of the meaning of Christmas.

This story took place at Christmas 1747 in Germany. Pastor Johannes de Watteville gave each child a lighten candle wrapped in a red ribbon, with a prayer said: "Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children's hearts". This was the first. Some years later, in 1968, John Penson of Children’s Society introduced Christingle services to the Anglican Church, where the custom spread quickly. The Christingle consists of: an orange representing the world; a red ribbon around it representing the blood o Jesus; dolly mixtures, dried fruits or sweets skewered on cocktail sticks pushed into the orange, representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons (the representation of the four seasons was a later addition, not of Moravian origin.); and a lit candle pushed into the centre of the orange, representing Jesus Christ as the light of the world.

Christmas Candy Cane story comes from Indiana. A candy maker wanted to make a candy for Christmas. He decided to incorporate symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy: this colour was used to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, The Foundation of the Church and firmness of the promises of God. He decided to make the candy with the form of a “J” to represent the name of Jesus. The candy maker thought that the candy was somewhat plain, and he stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes for the blood shed by Christ on the cross. So we could have the promise of eternal life. Candy Canes are a wonderful Christian symbol of Christmas.

Traditional Christmas Carol:

Look at the Candy Cane

What do you see?

Stripes that are red

Like the blood shed for me.

White is for my Savior

Who's sinless and pure!

"J" is for Jesus My Lord, that's for sure!

Turn it around

And a staff you will see

Jesus my shepherd

Was born for Me!

The last one is the traditional Christmas Gingerbread. It was brought by the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis to Europe in the 10th century. He left Armeny, to live in France. He stayed there seven years, and taught the Gingerbread cooking to French priests and Christians.

During the 13th century, it was brought to Sweden by German immigrants. It was the custom to bake white biscuits and paint them as window decorations. In the 16th century, they were sold in monasteries, pharmacies and town square farmers' markets. In the 17th century, the town of Market Drayton in Shropshire, UK became known for its gingerbread. The first recorded mention of gingerbread being baked in the town dates back to 1793. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century.

"And I had but one penny in the world, thou should'st have it to buy" gingerbread.

-- William Shakespeare, "Love's Labor's Lost"

By Esperanza Reyes