It’s likely you’ll eat at least one gingerbread cookie this holiday season. The perennial holiday favorite is a fixture of Christmas parties everywhere, both for its rich mix of sweet and spice, as well as the iconic gingerbread man shape.
Few things taste more like Christmas than gingerbread, but did you know this classic holiday sweet harbors a dark secret hidden behind its icing smile? From origins in ancient Roman harvest festivals, to Queen Elizabeth’s court, to 17th century superstitions about witches, there's a fascinating tale behind how this holiday icon made its way to your Christmas cookie platter.
This is the shockingly dark history of gingerbread.
Ancient Pagan Origins
Let's start in ancient Rome, where man-shaped biscuits were a regular fixture during Saturnalia, the raucous seven-day harvest festival celebrated every year. During the celebration, the biscuits were eaten by the Romans as a cheeky symbol of human sacrifice common in harvest festivals of centuries past.
While it's unknown if they were made with ginger or not, the spice was readily available and popular in ancient Rome. In any case, this idea of a cookie shaped like a man dates back thousands of years.
Also on offer were edible versions of sigillaria, human-shaped wax or terracotta figures gifted by Romans to friends and family on the last day of Saturnalia.
Many historians believe that Christians later “borrowed” much of the Saturnalia traditions and imagery for Christmas – including the tradition of baked goods and gift-giving.
Queen Elizabeth’s Court
Though ginger fell into obscurity in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire, it enjoyed renewed popularity after being brought back over to the West from China in the 13th century. Soon, gingerbread became a fixture in royal courts.
However, history’s greatest gingerbread lover may just be Queen Elizabeth I, who historians believe is responsible for the gingerbread man as we know it today.
Queen Elizabeth reportedly asked to have the dough specifically shaped as people – a novel idea in 16th century England. Complete with elaborate decorations to resemble dignitaries visiting her court, these beautifully designed cookies served not only as dessert, but also as clever tools of diplomacy by flattery.
Use in Witchcraft
Perhaps inspired by Queen Elizabeth and her many suitors, practitioners of folk magic began making gingerbread men as love tokens for young women, who ate the cookies in the hopes it would inspire marriage proposals.
But at some point, gingerbread’s place in folklore became twisted. A different idea took hold: that witches baked the treats not as symbols of love, but death.
The upheaval came about swiftly, likely thanks in part to the Witchcraft Act of 1604 – passed by the paranoid King James I – which made it a crime to use witchcraft or engage in other folk practices like enchantment or divination. Of all things, gingerbread got swept up in the hysteria, as worried citizens came to believe that witches baked the gingerbread men as voodoo doll-style effigies, consuming them to cause pain or even death in their enemies.
The hysteria was so widespread that superstitious Dutch magistrates outlawed baking and eating gingerbread men entirely, citing their link to witchcraft and occultism. And in much of Europe, witchcraft “tests” were often administered to suspected witches – with deadly results.
In a few short years, gingerbread men went from a common fixture in English courts to a tool of the demonic in the court of public opinion.
Grimm Tale, Happy Ending
So how did we get from “executed on sight for baking gingerbread men” to “perennial holiday staple”?
Though the persecution of witches had ceased by their time, the Brothers Grimm used the link between witches and gingerbread in their fairly tale “Hansel and Gretel” – the sensitive story of a cannibalistic witch who lures two young children to her gingerbread house, only to meet her comeuppance when the precocious youngsters shove her into her oven.
The story ignited a resurgence in popularity across Europe and North America, inspiring other folk stories and fairy tales like “The Gingerbread Man” (this time, the dark overtones were replaced with a healthy dose of whimsy). The renewed popularity of gingerbread aligned with the ascendance of Christmas as a national holiday in the United States, and soon the two became intertwined.
As memories of the past faded and traditions solidified, gingerbread people (and their houses) evolved into indelible symbols of the holiday season.
It’s a surprisingly twisted tale for such a simple treat – from ancient Pagan origins, to Queen Elizabeth’s court, to being outright illegal in parts of Europe, to the pages of Grimm fairy tales, to the modern Christmas cookie plate.
So next time you eat a gingerbread man, remember that you’re biting the head off of a cookie with a whole lot of history!
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