Easter on the Net - Peeps: The History of Everybody's Favorite Candy

Easter Peeps:
Tasty Marshmallowy Goodness

The History of Everybody's Favorite Candy

During the Easter season, Americans will enjoy an estimated 700 million Peeps, that sweet marshmallow candy shaped like a chick or bunny. With those kinds of numbers, it's no wonder Peeps are billed as America's favorite candy.

Are you a Peeps fan? Have you ever been curious about Peeps history? Where they came from and how they developed into the ultimate Easter treat? Just read on!

Nearly a century ago, a young Russian-born man named Sam Born was living in France, where he learned the fine art of chocolate making. Sam immigrated to the United States in 1910. Seven years later, he opened a small candy shop in New York City, where he not only sold sweets, but made them, too.

As Born's operations outgrew his store, he moved his company, by then coined Just Born, out of New York City to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

That's right: Bethlehem! First, the birthplace of Easter's superstar, and then (much) later, the site of the most popular treat eaten in his honor.

In the mid 1950s, Just Born acquired another company that had invented a three-dimensional marshmallow mold that turned out Easter chicks and bunnies, called Peeps. With some fine-tuning of their assembly line and clever marketing, Born had an Easter hit on his hands.

But why was the chick and rabbit so appealing? How did those particular animals-albeit sugary ones-so quickly become adopted as the symbols for Easter?

Interestingly, Just Born was based in Pennsylvania, which was also home to America's largest community of German immigrants who are largely credited with popularizing the Easter Bunny tradition in America.

In the 19th century, German children would eagerly await the arrival of the Oschter Haws, a rabbit who delighted children on Easter morning by laying colored eggs in nests. The Germans expanded this tradition into the Easter egg basket, delivered by a hopping bunny.

While the symbolism of the Easter bunny might be rather obvious, the chick question requires one to dig a little deeper. And to ask the perennial question: Which came first? The chicken? Or the egg?

Historians have long speculated that the egg was actually a Pagan symbol of fertility and rebirth, first associated with ancient equinox festivals, whose traditions were later folded into the Christian Easter. It stands to reason, then, that the chick would be a natural byproduct of this egg-y fertility.

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Comments

chewbaca

18:43 09/13/2009

I think you should make peeps individually wrapped....I was gonna get them, but I need 1,100 individually wrapped ones

mom from New York, US

07:10 04/12/2009

Peeps! We not only love to eat them but we have found a recipe and now enjoy the tradition of making our own homemade peeps every year. Yum!

gabriel marichalar from North Carolina, US

00:07 04/10/2009

I have an idea about peeps.

christian from Colorado, US

09:40 04/08/2009

I LOVE PEEPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dee from Michigan, US

08:46 04/07/2009

Peeps are more fun to play with than to eat! Do you know what they do in a microwave? Try peep jousting. Not just yummy, but fun!

kim nunn

07:42 03/23/2009

Peeps

Steve Elias from Pennsylvania, US

10:45 03/02/2009

The real reason the chick and the bunny were selected (this should be especially obvious because of Born's ethnicity) to be used as symbols in his marshmallow candies for Easter is because it was traditional, especially in the German and Eastern European peoples who settled the Eastern and Western Pennsylvania coal mining regions to give live baby chicks and rabbits to their children for Easter. These cute, live baby chicks were dyed various colors, with yellow being the most popular (other colors were pink and green). For those of us who are old enough to remember, these chicks were usually displayed in the front store window of the local feed and hardware stores. (This easter tradition made a lot of sense to these people because during that time most Miners were very poor and had chickens of their own in the backyard, so that when the children grew tired of their little baby chicks they would be incorporated into the families small chicken coop). Probably the latest that this tradition existed was around 1962 (I know of this this tradition to have existed in at least four communities as late as 1962, in Pennsylvania: Windber, Shamokin, Indiana and Spangler.) The reason given to me for the gift of a new baby chick is the celebration of and the renewal of life (Easter the celebration of Christ's resurrection).

cannot tell you from California, US

21:51 02/16/2009

really good, the article. Learned alot

C. Mercer

18:56 03/26/2008

I was delighted to find my favorite Peeps made with Splenda and only 60 calories for 3! Regular Peeps are so good when left out to get stale!! Yum.

Nicole Imbeault

09:15 03/24/2008

My 90 year old Mother craves peeps every Easter . It's pretty cool to read about there history.I will print this article and bring it to her to read

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Easter Peeps:Tasty Marshmallowy Goodness

Easter Peeps:
Tasty Marshmallowy Goodness