Gingerbread History (2024)

FAQs

What is the surprisingly dark history of gingerbread? ›

​Superstitions about gingerbread flourished in the 17th century. Witches supposedly made gingerbread figures, ate them, and thereby caused the death of their enemies. Dutch magistrates went so far as to declare baking or eating molded cookies illegal.

What's the Moral? The gingerbread man story's moral is slightly dark for a fable meant for children: Be careful who you trust. The cookie believed the fox when he said he wasn't tempted to eat him—this misguided trust led to the protagonist's downfall.

In the Gingerbread Man, the problem is that no one can catch the gingerbread man. The solution is that the fox tricks the gingerbread man and finally catches him. So to recap, most stories have characters, a setting, a problem and a solution.

Gingerbread is claimed to have been brought to Europe in 992 AD by the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis (also called Gregory Makar and Grégoire de Nicopolis). He left Nicopolis (in modern-day western Greece) to live in Bondaroy (north-central France), near the town of Pithiviers.

A fear that gingerbread men could be the agents of the devil also spread throughout Europe. In 1607, the superstitious magistrates of Delft in the Netherlands made it illegal to either bake or eat any of these molded and spiced cookies. This was also a time of religious upheaval.

Precursors to gingerbread men played a role in the Saturnalia, the Roman winter solstice celebration. The decadent festivities included excessive drinking, eating, and carousing. Celebrants gobbled down man-shaped biscuits representing the culminating event of Saturnalia—human sacrifice as a gift to appease the gods.

The tale ends with a fox catching and eating the gingerbread man who cries as he is devoured, "I'm quarter gone... I'm half gone... I'm three-quarters gone...

The Gingerbread Boy did not say 'anything more at all' because he had been eaten by the fox. There was nothing left of the Gingerbread Boy.

Moral Of The Story

The gingerbread man was very confident that he could run fast and escape from everyone. However, he was proved wrong when the sly fox caught him. Secondly, “we should never trust anyone blindly”. The gingerbread man believed the fox offered him and was not at all tempted to eat him.

What does gingerbread symbolize? ›

As gingerbread's popularity grew, Queen Elizabeth I decided to bestow these cookies as gifts upon dignitaries. Edged in gold leaf and appearing in many different shapes, these cookies became a symbol of wealth and stature.

Gingerbread was first brought to Europe in 992 CE by the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis when he taught French Christians the art of gingerbread baking. Later, during the 13th century, gingerbread was brought to Sweden by German immigrants.

In the 1875 St. Nicholas tale, a childless old woman bakes a gingerbread man, who leaps from her oven and runs away. The woman and her husband give chase, but are unable to catch him. The gingerbread man then outruns several farm workers, farm men, and farm animals.

Gingerbread's history dates back to medieval times, when it was thought to be medicinal cure for “coughs and infirmities of the lungs.” Medieval gingerbread would hardly be recognizable to us today as its main sweetener was honey rather than molasses. Gingerbread was popular in the colonial era, too.