When you think about gingerbread at Christmas, probably the first thing that comes to mind is the flat, spicy cookie that is made into men whose heads you bite off! Did you ever wonder why "gingerbread men" are shaped like men in the first place? The answer can be traced back hundreds of years.
Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558-1603, is credited with the invention of the gingerbread man. (I am not kidding!) She loved throwing lavish royal dinners that included things like marzipan shaped like fruit, castles and birds. But, the Queen's court also included a royal gingerbread maker. (Did you know that gingerbread makers actually belonged to a guild and that only men were permitted to bake the gingerbread? True!) Elizabeth delighted in having her gingerbread maker bake gingerbread men made in the likenesses of visiting dignitaries and people from her court. I wonder if these gingerbread men were placed on a serving platter to allow guests to choose any one they wanted. Just imagine the satisfaction of biting off the head of someone you really did not like!
But, the Queen wasn't the only person eating gingerbread men. Taking their lead from the Queen, gingerbread men were often handed out by folk medicine practitioners (often known as magicians and witches). These gingerbread men were created as "love tokens" for young women. The idea was to get the man you'd like to marry to eat the gingerbread man! Tadah! A trip down the aisle was in your future! Well that was what the magician / witch told you.
A contemporary to Queen Elizabeth was none other than William Shakespeare. In Loves Labor's Lost, he wrote this, "An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread." I guess William really liked gingerbread.
Pic: illustration from The Little Gingerbread Man by Robert Gaston Herbert 1910 - Google images
