Confetti, Traditions and Trivia

Close your eyes. For a moment, you can almost taste them. The classics, as you’d expect, are almond, hazelnut and chocolate, but over time these little confections, recognizable by their delicate ridges, have become increasingly sophisticated—available in every hue and in ever more refined flavors. Papaya, banana, strawberry, coffee, even rose: today there’s no celebration they can’t elevate. While Sulmona in Abruzzo proudly claims the world’s oldest confetti-making tradition, the true origins of these treats reach much further back…

Legend—unsupported by solid scholarship—credits an Arab physician named Al Razi with the invention of sugar-coating. Seeking to mask the bitter aftertaste of a medicine, he is said to have enrobed it in a sweet shell.

Already in Ancient Rome—that much we know from the records of the Fazi family (447 BC) and Apicius, confidant of Emperor Tiberius (14–37 AD)—it was customary for guests to bring “bon-bons” with sweet centers to celebrate births and marriages. The Latin term confectum, literally “made up” or “prepared,” stands in stark contrast to today’s tradition: back then, the sugared treats were gifts bestowed upon hosts in hopes of luck and happiness to come.

A simple blend of almonds, honey and flour (sugar only reached Europe in the 1400s), confetti truly came into their own around 1200 AD in Venice—a bustling hub for East-West trade—though they were already popular among the Byzantines. Nobles famously threw them from balconies during festivities. In the Renaissance they appeared in overflowing bowls at receptions honoring the vows of nuns and priests, and even 14th-century artists celebrated their delights.

Sulmona’s archives hold the earliest written record of confetti production—a 1492 manuscript whose methods were later adopted by the nuns of Santa Chiara. By the 1500s they had perfected the art of making these confections. The French, for their part, introduced the elegant custom of presenting them in small souvenir boxes (bombonières), but it wasn’t until 1861 that confetti took on the size and shape we recognize today.

According to traditional techniques, refined sugar was placed in an alembic and dropped into a copper kettle suspended from the ceiling. As the kettle swayed ever faster, sugar layers built up around each nut until the familiar shape emerged. Modern producers achieve the same result in large copper bowls called bassines, through a process known as “brillo.”

Believe it or not, the original “center” of the confetto was the coriander seed. In the 1500s, sugar-coated seeds were made and tossed at festivals as good-luck charms. Initially white, then—by the early 1800s—vibrantly colored, they eventually grew so expensive they were replaced by the paper confetti we know today.

White, the ultimate symbol of purity, remains the brides’ first choice for weddings (and often for first communions). Pink and blue mark baptisms; green celebrates engagements; red—believe it or not—is used for university thesis defenses. Silver and gold commemorate the 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries, respectively.

…each packet should contain exactly five confetti. An odd number—undividable—symbolizes the journey the couple is embarking on together, while also invoking wishes for longevity, health, fertility and all the joys life can bring.