The symbol of the shepherd's crook is an ancient one, representing the humble shepherds who were first to worship the newborn Christ. Its counterpart is our candy cane so old as a symbol that we have nearly forgotten its origin.
Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral handed out sugar sticks among his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Nativity ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into shepherds’ crooks.
In 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard of Wooster, Ohio, decorated a small blue spruce with paper ornaments and candy canes.
It wasn’t until the turn of the century that the red and white stripes and peppermint flavors became the norm.
Since then the candy has come to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.
White to symbolize the virgin birth and sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the solid rock, the foundation of the church and the firmness of God's promises.
The three small stripes represent the stripes Jesus received at the hands of the soldiers. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so we could have eternal life.
The peppermint flavor of the candy cane is similar to hyssop, which is in the mint family and was used in Old Testament times for purification and sacrifice. Jesus is the pure Lamb of God who came to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
In the 1920s, Bob McCormack began making candy canes as a special Christmas treat for his children, friends and local shopkeepers in Albany, Georgia. It was a laborious process twisting, cutting and bending each candy cane by hand. It could only be done on a small, local scale. In the 1950s, Bob’s brother-in-law Gregory Keller, a Catholic priest, invented a machine to automate candy cane production.
Packaging innovations by the younger McCormacks made it possible to transport the delicate canes on a scale that transformed Bobs Candies, Inc. into the largest producer of candy canes in the world.
Although modern technology has made candy canes accessible and plentiful, they’ve not lost their purity and simplicity as a traditional holiday food and symbol of the humble roots of Christianity.
