Apparently the public school teacher I mentioned in Tuesday’s post isn’t the only one that feels as though the candy cane has its origins in the story of Christ. Our friend Ole’ E Cross just found a site making the same case. Here’s a clip:
A Candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness for his Savior, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. The white symbolizes the Virgin Birth (Is. 7:14; Luke 1:26-35) and the sinless nature of Jesus (1 John 3:5) The hardness of the candy symbolizes the Solid Rock (1 Cor. 10:4), the foundation of the Church (Mt. 16:18), and the firmness of the promises of God (Ps. 18:30-32). The candy maker made the candy into the form of a ”J” to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior (1 John 3:16-17), and a symbol to represent the staff of the Good Shepherd (John 10:14). Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker decided to stain it with red stripes, representing the stripes of the scourging Jesus received prior to his crucifixion (Mark 15:15-20) for our healing (Is. 53:5). The large red stripe represents the shedding of His blood on the cross for our salvation (Rom. 5:9: Eph. 1:7). Unfortunately, the Candy Cane has lost its traditional meaning and become just a decoration only seen at Christmas time. But we at Guiding Light and Scripture Candy, pray that this traditional symbol will again be used as a witness for the glory and honor of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Sadly, it’s apparently a crock of shit.
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And next you’ll be trying to tell us that Coca-Cola didn’t invent Santa. What, I suppose you think our modern Christmas just evolved slowly over time?
Santa did, however, develop his familiar weight problem only after he discovered Coke. Before that, he was a lean machine.
Kilwin’s does sell chocolate crosses at Easter! Jesus not included…
“Gummi Christ sold separately.”
I asked a Hindi store owner today if there was an Indian feast for the winter solstice that was celebrated by Hindus. His answer was Christmas. “All banks, etcetera are closed from the 24th to after the new year.”
He was suprised when I told him that scholars agree that Jesus of Nazareth was most likely born in April, which matches other facts in the story, the star, the census, etc. The store owner was shocked.
“I was taught that December 25th was Jesus birthday. Every Inidian knows Krishna’s birthday …” he went on. I said, the early church changed the date to run concurrent with the Roman solstice feast of Saturnalia. He was shocked. When I told him that many, if not most, of all major Christian holy sites (like Notre Dame in Paris) are built over Roman temples or other pagan holy sites, he was amazed. “Hindus don’t do such things. India is democratic. We honor all religions. We have done so long before Christians. Long before Muslims.”
I had just picked up my Korean carry-out, but suddenly developed a craving for curried mussels. Timing is everything. Happy Hannukah!