Did you know December 12 is Gingerbread House Day? It is the day families and friends come together to create seasonal Christmas houses. Learn the gingerbread and Christmas gingerbread house history!
To begin with, the ginger root was first cultivated in China around 5,000 years ago for medicinal purposes.
Gingerbread can be traced back to over 2,400 years ago when ancient Greeks and Egyptians used it for ceremonial festivities.
Later, gingerbread appeared in Europe during the Crusades when ginger was brought from the Middle East for the aristocrats’ cooks. As gingerbread and spices became accessible to the masses, gingerbread popularized.
The story goes…
It has been told that in 992 an Armenian monk actually brought gingerbread to Europe and taught French Christians how to bake it and mold the dough into images of saints.
Because it was shaped into religious icons and royalty, gingerbread making was considered a sacred practice and therefore only guild members could prepare it, except during Christmas and Easter when any household could do the same.
Eventually, in the 17th century, it became associated with winter and the Christmas season
Grimm tales
Now as for gingerbread houses, this originates with the Brothers’ Grimm in the 1800s. Their famous Hansel and Gretel tells the story of a witch who lived in a gingerbread house that attracted and trapped the siblings.
The popularity of the story and the detail of the house spread through Germany where the ginger bakers guild built their own houses and added snow and sweet decorations.
The rest is (deliciously fun) history.
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