This week the Oldies but Goodies Challenge at JAC is a day early. I'm sure you won't mind.
The challenge had the topic candy canes. Thinking about that I found that I knew nothing about candy canes. Imagine my surprise when I started looking around and found a story about a German (again!?) choirmaster in the 17th century who asked a candy maker to make some sweet sticks for the children to make them keep silence in church during the service on Christmas Eve.
I also found stories about the symbolism behind the colors - white for Jesus' purity, red for his blood - and the shape - J stands for Jesus or the cane is supposed to remind of a shepherd's cane (which was translated to the cane of a Shepherd dog in one story, much to my childish joy) - and even why peppermint is a common flavor for candy canes.
This time, however, I'll send you to Snopes for more information where we are told that none of these stories are actually proven.
As you can see here at the Jewelry Artisans Community for more pictures, red and white don't seem to be a common color combination, so with some items you only get red or white which does not make them any less pretty!
1 RioRita
2 Cat's Wire
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 The Crafty Chimp
5 Violetmoon's Corner
6 MC Stoneworks
7 Galadryl Design
Mmm-hmmm, those all look very tasty, I mean lovely.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me while I go buy some candy canes.
You know, I don't think I actually ever had one ....
DeleteInteresting! I didn't know anything about candy canes other than they're sweet and usually peppermint.
ReplyDeleteNeither did I. I'm learning so much doing these posts!
DeleteMy daughter found candy canes with lime green stripes, to match our tree décor!
ReplyDeleteHa! How cool is that?! :-D
DeleteSanta hands out candy canes to all of the children who come to see him. Who knew candy canes were so interesting?
ReplyDeleteThank you for including me in your collage, Cat!