What shape is a candy cane traditionally meant to represent?

What shape is a candy cane traditionally meant to represent? A shepherd’s crook. Its curved top is commonly explained as a reminder of the shepherds associated with the Nativity story.

A popular origin story places the idea in Cologne, Germany, in 1670. According to the tale, a choirmaster asked a candy maker to bend sugar sticks so children could associate them with shepherds while attending Christmas services. The white candy was also supposedly used to symbolize purity, while later interpretations gave religious meanings to the red stripes.

That story is widely repeated but is probably apocryphal: references to it do not appear until the twentieth century. Historically documented candy sticks existed earlier, and the candy cane became especially popular in the United States during the twentieth century. The curved shape also plainly resembles a walking cane, which explains why “cane” is a physical description, while “shepherd’s crook” is the traditional symbolic answer.