Christmas B – Gingerbread

Christmas

Christmas gingerbread

The depiction of the Nativity on gingerbread is one of the traditional images associated with Christmas. Gingerbread biscuits, traditionally made with honey, have long been made as gifts during Advent, which is hardly surprising given the widespread practice of beekeeping in many parts of present-day Slovenia. The earliest forms of gingerbread were decorated by hand or made by pressing the thick honey dough into wooden moulds. From these beginnings developed the craft known as lect-making (the name deriving from the Austrian German Lebzelt, meaning a type of flat cake), which simplified the production process, with the surfaces of the gingerbread decorated with sugar icing applied from piping bags. With the spread of the custom of putting up Christmas trees – which occurred relatively late in both towns and villages – lect gingerbreads became a common decoration. Even today, lect-makers and chandlers sell decorated gingerbreads at their Christmas stalls, to hang on Christmas trees and help create the magic of the festive season.

Janez Bogataj