Get in the spirit early with 2021 Gingerbread Exhibition event
Building a gingerbread house is a well-known winter season/Christmas tradition. As families plan for their gingerbread house creations this year, the Guymon Public Library is encouraging the community to submit their creations for an upcoming contest they are calling a gingerbread contest/exhibition. This event is being held at the library starting on Nov. 22 for the contestants and will be open to the public on Nov. 29. The theme for this exhibition is Guymon: City of Homes. Decorate your gingerbread houses to go along with this theme or a traditional holiday scene. “We're putting on the event to raise money for next year's library programs and materials for the adult, children, and teen areas of the library. We hope to extend our programming to reach out beyond the library next year and this will be a big part of that endeavor,” Blair Henson, Library Director, said.
Everyone is encouraged and welcome to enter a display. If an individual is under the age of 18, a parent, legal guardian, or teacher must sign the entry form. All entry forms must be filled out, signed, and turned in by email, fax, or in-person by 7 p.m. on Mon., Nov. 8. All acceptance notifications will be sent via email within one week of submitting an entry form or by Nov. 9. Each entry will be divided up into three different divisions. The first division is the Professional Division, which is for bakeries, caterers, or professional bakers. The second division is the Adult Divison, which is for individuals or groups of adults 18 years old and up. The third is the Youth Division, which is for individuals 8 to 17 years old. Any school groups who would like to participate can contact Blair Henson, Library Director, at 580-3387330 for more information. The winners in each division will be given an Amazon gift card and a plaque as a prize.
“This is a great beginning to what we hope will be a yearly tradition for the Guymon Public Library and a fun way to support the library's programs,” Henson said.
Completed entries should be dropped off on Nov. 22 between 9:30
a.m. and 7 p.m. Entries dropped off by bakers will be asked to review and edit their label text for their display. All entries can be picked up on Tues. Jan. 4 between 9:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. and any not picked up will be discarded.
Voting for the gingerbread houses will be people's choice at the library. The way this is done is by donating to the library and noting which entry you enjoyed the most and will be open from Nov. 29 through Jan. 3.
The history behind making gingerbread houses comes from far more than just a Christmas tradition as it may seem. According to Rhonda Massingham Harts, Making Gingerbread House, the first known recipe for gingerbread was located in Greece in 2,400 B.C.The idea to decorate gingerbread came from Queen Elizabeth I after she made some gingerbread to resemble dignitaries who were visiting her court. Europeans used to decorate their gingerbread with gold leaves and shape them to look like animals. Shapes usually changed as the seasons changed, for spring they were made to look like flowers, and in fall they were shaped like birds. Gingerbread houses, on the other hand, come from Germany in the 16th century. These became more popular after Brothers Grimm wrote Hansel and Gretel. If you haven't heard the tale of Hansel and Gretel, it is about a brother and sister who were abandoned in the forest. While trying to find a way out, they find a house made of gingerbread that was decorated with pastries and candy where a cannibal witch lives. The witch tries to fatten up Hansel and Gretel so she could eat them, but Gretel ends up tricking the witch and ends up killing her. In Germany, in addition to gold leaves, they added foil to help decorate their gingerbread houses. Nowadays, we use gingerbread houses to celebrate Christmas, make family memories, and making cute date ideas.
For more information on the contest/exhibition, rules, or to register, check out the library's website at guymon.okpls.org under the news tab, call Blair Henson, Library Director, at 580-338-7330 or email at adult.librarian.gpl@ gmail.com, or take a trip to the library and visit the staff.