Kazimiera
06-13-2015, 11:00 PM
Swedish Funeral Candy
Source: https://nourishingdeath.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/swedish-funeral-candy/
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/begravningskonfekt_svart_tro_hopp_karlekx2.jpg
During the mid-nineteenth century in Sweden hard sugar candies, typically in the form of a corpse and wrapped in black crepe paper with fringes became a popular funeral favor.
Offered to funeral attendees with wine prior to the service, these little candy corpses wrapped up in a black shroud soon became a Swedish custom.
According to Mats Bigert, “The wrapper was fringed, and the length and width of the fringes suggested the age of the deceased; long and thin would indicate the death of an old person.” Shorter, wider fringe would then be indicative of a child or younger individual.
The wrappers would sometimes be adorned with ornately patterned silver paper, pictures of cherubs, or the more somber choice of a silhouetted crucifix or graveside setting.
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/begravningskonfekt_tro_hopp_karlek_samt_grav.jpg
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/begravningskonfekt_anglar_x4.jpg
Verses, prayers and poems attached to the candies were also commonplace. They ran the gamut from such grim treasures as:
The dark, quiet abyss;
All our days will end like this.
To an odd, moralistic pep rally:
Death shall one day all us fetter.
Pray, repent, act and make better.
Consider, human, what you do.
You never know when life is through.
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/2023.jpg
World War I and imposed sugar rationing proved to be the death knell for these funereal favors. Interestingly, I have found a few references to people now using the surviving candies as ornaments on Christmas trees, which I find strangely fitting.
Source: https://nourishingdeath.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/swedish-funeral-candy/
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/begravningskonfekt_svart_tro_hopp_karlekx2.jpg
During the mid-nineteenth century in Sweden hard sugar candies, typically in the form of a corpse and wrapped in black crepe paper with fringes became a popular funeral favor.
Offered to funeral attendees with wine prior to the service, these little candy corpses wrapped up in a black shroud soon became a Swedish custom.
According to Mats Bigert, “The wrapper was fringed, and the length and width of the fringes suggested the age of the deceased; long and thin would indicate the death of an old person.” Shorter, wider fringe would then be indicative of a child or younger individual.
The wrappers would sometimes be adorned with ornately patterned silver paper, pictures of cherubs, or the more somber choice of a silhouetted crucifix or graveside setting.
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/begravningskonfekt_tro_hopp_karlek_samt_grav.jpg
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/begravningskonfekt_anglar_x4.jpg
Verses, prayers and poems attached to the candies were also commonplace. They ran the gamut from such grim treasures as:
The dark, quiet abyss;
All our days will end like this.
To an odd, moralistic pep rally:
Death shall one day all us fetter.
Pray, repent, act and make better.
Consider, human, what you do.
You never know when life is through.
https://nourishingdeath.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/2023.jpg
World War I and imposed sugar rationing proved to be the death knell for these funereal favors. Interestingly, I have found a few references to people now using the surviving candies as ornaments on Christmas trees, which I find strangely fitting.