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Saturday 12 April 2014

Christmas Cracker

A London confectioner, Tom Smith, perfected the Christmas cracker in 1847 combining French sweet-wrapping expertise with the Chinese traditions of fortune-cookie mottoes and exploding firecrackers.

He called them 'cosaques', thought to be named after the 'Cossack' soldiers who had a reputation for riding on their horses and firing guns into the air.

It was Tom Smith's son Walter who started putting the paper party hats that look like crowns into crackers. They symbolise the crowns worn by the Three Kings.


The largest cracker in the world was made by the children and parents of Ley Hill School in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England on December 20, 2001. It measured 63.1 m (207 ft) long and 4 m (13 ft) in diameter and was made of: 200m 6" a 2" timber, half a mile of cardboard, 1300 bolts, 1000 nails, 500 screws and half a mile of plastic tape. It was filled with festive hats, jokes and toys and was pulled apart by 40 people.

A solitary cracker that survived the sinking of the Titanic sold for nearly $23,000 in a 2015 auction.

Source Physorg.com

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