 Though the exact origin and significance of the candle blowing ritual is unknown, the history of placing candles on top of the cake is well documented. This tradition can be traced to Kinderfest (Kinder is the German word for 'children'), an 18th century German birthday celebration for children. A letter written in 1799 by Goethe recounts: "...when it was time for dessert, the prince's entire livery...carried a generous-size torte with colorful flaming candles - amounting to some fifty candles - that began to melt and threatened to burn down, instead of there being enough room for candles indicating upcoming years, as is the case with children's festivities of this kind...". As the excerpt indicates, the tradition at the time was to place candles for each of the individual's life with some added candles 'indicating upcoming years'. Candles, being slow-burning, are believed to be symbolic of the passage of time. In fact, they were often used as timekeepers. The origin of birthday cake candles can be further traced back to the 16th century German tradition of placing tapers on Christmas trees. This tradition was then brought to North America by German immigrants. By 1927, the Sears Roebuck catalogue offered birthday candles and holders for sale.
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and according to George Eliot, "Germany's greatest man of letters… and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust. Goethe's other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.
Goethe was one of the key figures of German literature and the movement of Weimar Classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; this movement coincides with Enlightenment, Sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of
Colors, he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also served at length as the Privy Councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.
Sears Roebuck
Sears, Roebuck and Company, commonly known as Sears, is an American mid-range chain of international department stores, founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Roebuck in the late 19th century. It operates in Canada under Sears Canada, Mexico under Sears Mexico and Guatemala under Homemart, S.A. From its mail order beginnings, the company grew to become the largest retailer in the United States by the mid-20th century, and its catalogs became famous. Competition and changes in the demographics of its customer base challenged the company after World War II as its rural and inner city strongholds shrank and the suburban markets grew. Eventually its catalog program was largely discontinued. Sears, a former component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, merged with Kmart in early 2005, creating the Sears Holdings Corporation.
The largest Sears store in the world, operated by Sears
America, is 817,850 square feet (75,981 m2), in the Toronto Eaton Centre. The largest American store is located near the Sears headquarters at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. It has 416,000 square feet (38,600 m2) of retail space. The second largest Sears store in the USA is located at the former Livonia Mall in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
|
Chocolate Cake
