First Day of Truth - Gingerbread Men
One of the most harmless parts of the Christmas tradition? Not even close. The gingerbread man has origins in some of the oldest pagan traditions. The Greek poet Lucian, when describing Saturnalia, made note of consuming human shaped biscuits. These biscuits were, like the animal shaped ones before them, seen as an alternative to ritual sacrifice. As the christians adopted some of the traits of Saturnalia around the 4th century in order to try to bring in the pagan masses, they brought the cookies with them. Later, as the crusaders pillaged the Middle East, they found spices such as ginger and sugar. Early on gingerbread was made by monks, but by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries bakers began to specialize in the treat. In France and England these bakers formed guilds, and were given the exclusive right to make gingerbread, except at Christmas and Easter. This lead to it becoming a holiday tradition.
So next time you bite into your representation of human sacrifice, flavored by spices taken during a war based solely on religious differences, and made into a holiday treat in order to ensure the church maintained a profit; I suggest showing a little mercy and eating it head first.
And now you know.
One of the most harmless parts of the Christmas tradition? Not even close. The gingerbread man has origins in some of the oldest pagan traditions. The Greek poet Lucian, when describing Saturnalia, made note of consuming human shaped biscuits. These biscuits were, like the animal shaped ones before them, seen as an alternative to ritual sacrifice. As the christians adopted some of the traits of Saturnalia around the 4th century in order to try to bring in the pagan masses, they brought the cookies with them. Later, as the crusaders pillaged the Middle East, they found spices such as ginger and sugar. Early on gingerbread was made by monks, but by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries bakers began to specialize in the treat. In France and England these bakers formed guilds, and were given the exclusive right to make gingerbread, except at Christmas and Easter. This lead to it becoming a holiday tradition.
So next time you bite into your representation of human sacrifice, flavored by spices taken during a war based solely on religious differences, and made into a holiday treat in order to ensure the church maintained a profit; I suggest showing a little mercy and eating it head first.
And now you know.
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