There are many foods associated with the holidays, but people all over the world have fallen in love with one particular Christmas confection. If you guessed fruitcake, think again. I’m talking about gingerbread, in all its many forms.
Gingerbread has been around since ancient times. Ginger originated in Southeast Asia and was used by the Chinese and other cultures as a tonic to treat common ailments. From there, it spread to Europe via the Silk Road. The first known recipe for gingerbread came from Greece in 2400 B.C. By the late Middle Ages, Europeans had their own version of gingerbread in the form of hard cookies. These cookies were cut into many different shapes and elaborately decorated, or rolled into plain circles known as ginger “snaps.” They were a staple at Medieval fairs all across Europe and beloved by people of all ages and from all economic backgrounds. By 1598, gingerbread was popular enough to earn a mention in the Shakespeare play “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (“An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread…”).
Those hard cookies weren’t the only type of sweet treat referred to as “gingerbread.” Originally, “gingerbread” simply meant “preserved ginger.” It went on to describe spiced loaves of cake-like bread, and is now a broad term for any type of baked good that combines ginger with honey, treacle, or molasses.
The first gingerbread men are credited to Queen Elizabeth I, who fashioned the popular fair food after important guests who visited her court. More than 300 years later, gingerbread became associated with Christmas when the story of “The Gingerbread Man” was first published in an 1875 issue of “St. Nicholas Magazine.” No one knows who originally authored this tale of a cookie’s escape from various pursuers, but it was passed down verbally through many generations before it ever appeared in print.
Gingerbread houses, the form of gingerbread most commonly associated with Christmas, originated in Germany in the 16th Century. They are typically made out of ginger cookie dough that has been cut into the shapes of walls, roofs, etc., baked, and then “glued” together with icing and decorated with a variety of things, such as sprinkles and candy. Gingerbread was originally chosen for the construction of these houses because ginger has qualities that help preserve the dough, allowing the houses to be safely consumed even after being on display for long periods of time. Gingerbread houses gained popularity when the Brothers Grimm wrote the popular fairy tale story of Hansel and Gretel, in which the main characters stumble across a house made entirely of gingerbread and candies in the middle of the forest.
Want to make your own gingerbread creation? Children ages 4-11 are invited to construct a gingerbread house at the Botetourt County Libraries at the following dates and times:
Blue Ridge – Tuesday, December 17 from 4-5:30 p.m.
Fincastle – Wednesday, December 18 from 4-5 p.m.
Buchanan – Wednesday, December 18 from 5-7 p.m.
Eagle Rock -Friday, December 27 from 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Please call your local branch to reserve your space today.
-Audrey Clark
Fincastle Library