Today is National Gingerbread Day
June 05, 2018
The Bottom Line: June 5th is National Gingerbread Day!
The Full Story:
June 5th is National Gingerbread Day! Gingerbread is a sweet food that typically uses honey or molasses rather than just sugar and is flavored with ginger. Gingerbread foods range from a soft, moist loaf cake to something closer to a ginger biscuit.
A favorite food of an Armenian monk, Gregory of Nicopolis, he reportedly brought gingerbread to Europe around 992 AD and taught French Christians to bake it. Gingerbread was often used in religious ceremonies and was baked to be sturdy as it was often molded into images of saints.
In the 17th century, gingerbread biscuits were sold in monasteries, pharmacies and town square farmers markets. During the 18th century, gingerbread became widely available. The rest, is history!
- And by the way? We can thank the Brothers’ Grimm for the idea of a gingerbread house through their tale of Hansel and Gretel. It didn’t take long for the German gingerbread guilds to pick up the idea and put it to a more festive use making snowy cottages made from the spicy-sweet treat. People love the houses so much, they created a holiday for that, too. National Gingerbread House Day is celebrated on December 12th.