03/22/2023: The Weird Iceland / Greenland Holiday Candy Effect

When Erik the Red set sail during his exile from Iceland in 982, he set sail to the land that Snæbjörn galti Hólmsteinsson travelled to in 978. Snæbjörn was the first Icelander to intentionally travel to what is now called Greenland, but Erik the Red is the one who coined the name. According to The Saga of Erik the Red, he gave it the name Greenland because "people would be attracted to go there if it had a favorable name." Over a thousand years later, people who don't know about the ol' switcheroo scratch their heads at why the more icy place is called "Greenland" and the more favorable place is called "Iceland."

Let's call this "The Iceland / Greenland Effect."

On an unrelated note, I talked last week about candy. Specifically, I talked about The Candy Trade that takes place after getting your haul of Halloween candy after Trick-or-Treating. While some other holidays were mentioned, it was only to mention that the same candy trading could (should?) happen after those holidays as well. With Easter on the horizon for those who celebrate, I want to talk about another aspect of the Candyscape: the prevailing candies mentioned for a given holiday versus what you actually get.

Keep in mind that my experiences are far from universal; different cultures and even families will have a different way of celebrating holidays, so these are just based off of what I grew up with. As a baseline, I'm taking a look at what gets shown to kids in North America for "what candies go with each holiday." That's the type of media that I watched as a kid, and while my winters were far from a snowy wonderland, I feel like most of what was on the screen was relatable on at least a surface level for me.

Because it's my favorite candy-based holiday, let's start with Halloween.

Halloween

I'd say that this is the biggest candy-based holiday in the North American calendar to my knowledge. If anyone knows of a bigger one, I need to be informed of this Willy Wonka-esque party immediately to make up for lost time. Anyway, I'd argue that chocolate and non-chocolate candies alike get the spotlight for this holiday, but I'd argue that non-chocolate candies get highlighted more often. Maybe it's because there's only so many ways that you can indicate chocolate in a clip art infographic for parties before you need to name-drop big brands. It's easier to depict lollipops, candy corn, bubblegum, hard candies, popcorn balls, pretzels, and candy apples before you get to the chocolate bars. I'm not sure.

However, I'd also argue that, despite the optics of this being a non-chocolate focused holiday, anywhere from 30% to 50% of the loot that kids get from their rounds of Trick-or-Treating is chocolate! Trust me, I'm not complaining, but I do find it interesting that there's a discrepancy between what we depict for the holiday and what you actually get. Again, maybe this is just a matter of practicality for lineart, but I'm not sure.

Christmas

Did you know that "sugar plums" don't refer to a plum covered in sugar, but instead are supposed to be a hard sugar candy that's small and round? When "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (or "The Night Before Christmas") was published in 1823, that knowledge was likely more widespread than it is now. While we don't have sugar plums so much anymore, our Christmases are still a good time for candy, just in the form of candy canes and peppermints. I think it's partially because we associate red and white with the holiday. According to folklore, candy canes were invented around 1670 to help the kids at the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany keep quiet during Christmas services. The Keller Machine used to automate the process of shaping the canes wasn't patented until 1957, nearly three hundred years after their origin!

I'd say that this holiday gets a passing score on the What You See Is What You Get Scale; I think that nary a Christmas has come and gone where candy canes weren't taking up all the candy real estate. I would say that it wasn't the big thing that I was excited about as a kid, though. Obviously, there's the loving time with family, the days off from school, the presents, the time to take a breather, the presents, and did I mention toys and gifts and presents? Foodwise, I don't think my family had a Traditional Christmas Dinner in any formal sense, but I have heard of Christmas Turkeys and Christmas Hams being a cultural phenomenon. For me, the big ticket seasonal drink was (and is) non-alchoholic egg nog! My local grocery chain lets you get it by the half-gallon, and it's a ray of sunshine in the cold winter days.

Easter

On first glance, this is a chocolate-based holiday for sure. Chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, and chocolate coins all make up the candy iconography for this holiday, but you know what you actually get? Jelly beans! Peeps marshmallows! Hard candies! Oh, sure, you get a chocolate bunny in your Easter basket, but what is that basket lined with? Easter candy grass! Again, I'm a fan of chocolate and non-chocolate alike, but I find it interesting that we place so much emphasis on the big ticket item of the chocolate bunny that we seem to lose peripheral sight of the jelly beans fields that she's frolicking in.

Incidentally, I didn't know that the traditional purpose of Easter baskets was to have meat, eggs, and other forbidden foods during Lent. This blog has really let me go on a rabbit hole of information, pun definitely intended.

Aside from the Easter basket, you also have the Egg Hunt. Among the brightly colored eggs that you boil and color yourself, you also get the little plastic capsules that you fill with candy or money. For my family, you also get cascarones to smash on each other's heads. It's a very egg-themed holiday, probably moreso than chocolate. If we're strictly speaking about candies, I'd say that in the plastic capsule eggs, you're still not getting a lot of chocolate; you're getting more jelly beans and hard candy!

Birthdays

This is one of the more disorganized holidays, as it's usually a "cake, cookies, and ice cream" sort of celebration. It also differs from family to family and person to person, depending on what The Special Birthday Person wants. For my family, I mentioned piñata mix being a solid bet because of who we are and where we're at. You'd still find cake and cookies for sure, but no party favors aside from what you get from the piñata.

The Ol' Switcheroo

So, let's get back to the premise: The Iceland / Greenland Effect, and what it has to do with candy. I put it to you that while Easter gets the optics of being a chocolate-based holiday and Halloween gets to be a free-for-all, I don't think that that's the case in practice. Easter has more non-chocolate candy involved, and Halloween is less of an equal opportunity candy free-for-all than previously assessed. So, why?

I think the reason is pretty simple: ambient temperature. When do you celebrate Easter and have the Egg Hunt? Well, unless you have night vision goggles (preferably from the Christmas before [to catch Santa, of course]), you're probably kicking that off in the morning or afternoon. Even on Spring days, the ambient temperature is enough to melt the chocolate and get stains on your nice Easter outfit! When do you go Trick-or-Treating? When all the ghost and ghouls roam the earth: dusk to evening. Chocolate can hold up better in the late Fall, especially after the heat of the day breaks.

If that's the reason for the difference, why don't we advertise the holidays accurately? For this one, I'd argue that we're more focused on whatever The Grand Prize is for a given holiday. Yes, it's mostly jelly beans and hard candy for Easter, but that chocolate bunny is a crown jewel in that Easter basket! Halloween may be a 50/50 split between chocolate and non-chocolate, but it's a time where all shapes and sizes of treats are doled out with equal enthusiasm! Much like the Iceland / Greenland switcheroo, there's a reason for this apparent deception, but it may not be so obvious at first glance.