Christmas n Food

Christmas and Culture-3

When Christmas was cancelled!

In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.

Thank Heaven that the 'decadence ' is back, though there are some modern puritans who want to have a campaign to ban Christmas Cake, saying that Jesus Christ didn't have cake on his birthday! How ridiculous can one get, eh?

Anyway, here's something about a Christmas treat or two

The fruit cakes have come from a long line of change and improvement that has experienced political and economic changes. It went from being called plum porridge to Christmas pudding (with the addition of many other spices) and then it was called Christmas cake. By the late 18th century, fruit cakes were exclusively made for special occasions.

mince pies

In Kalimpong, Shillong, and Sikkim, it's Chrstmas when the neighbourhood bakeries start turning out somescrumptious Christmas cakes ,mince pies, and cookies.

Another common food during the Christmas season is candy canes. These are actually made from sugar, water, corn syrup, Peppermint flavoring, red food colour and cream of tartar. There are actually some stories that surround this. These candy canes also underwent some changes with time.

Candy cane used to be a plain white candy stick which was given to the smaller kids while they are attending the Christmas service, to keep them from being fidgety. This of course would keep them quiet throughout the service. Then, candy was shaped into a cane, and eventually had stripes by the end of 19th century.

Now many good people have to make everything very symbolic. In some unconfirmed accounts, they say that one candy maker made this candy with symbols in mind.

 So here goes:

The candy canes were white at first for the purity of Jesus, the red stripes wereadded to symbolise the pain he encountered, during his passion. While the bent at the end  likens it to shepherd’s staff, which says that Jesus is a shepherd of all men. Then the inverted cane is the letter J, for Jesus.

There are some other foods that may have the flavour of Christmas spirit every time you see them. They should remind us of the season and also of the meaning of it.

In Calcutta, it's common to buy a lot of 'barley sugar' which is another name for hard-boiled stick candy, and put them in kids' chrstmas stockings.