Mistletoe, a holiday tradition

I was discussing this plant and its Christmas tradition with a friend recently, and thought it would be an interesting blog post.

Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows on host shrubs and trees, and is deposited on the vegetation through the dropping of birds who feast on the berries. The mistletoe can also kill the ends of some of the branches as they overgrow the smaller ones. Mistletoe provides food and nesting materials for myriad of birds and insects as well.

We often think of mistletoe as a small bunch of green leaves and white berries hung in an hallway or other conspicuous place where tradition holds you get to kiss the person standing underneath it. Some people carry it or have it readily available to make sure they get to kiss the one they love by whisking it out with precision timing.

The mistletoe can be traced back to ancient druids who believed it held magical powers, brought good luck to households, and like jack-o-lanterns, ward off evil spirits. The idea of mistletoe creating love and celebrating with it came in Norse mythology. Kissing under the venerable plant got started in jolly old England. The original custom of kissing started by such that if someone could pick a berry from the sprig of the plant and there were no more berries, the kissing would cease.

The York Minster church in the UK used to hold a mass in the winter where wrong doers in the city could come and be pardoned.

The etiology of the word mistletoe comes from Anglo Saxon "mistel" which translates to "dung, and and "tan" which translates to "twig or stick". Who knew?! So now we can associate a loving or friendly kiss to poo on a stick.

Mistletoe also has some negative connotations. For example, if a girl refused a kiss whilst standing under mistletoe, it was said that she wouldn't receive any marriage proposals during the following year. Worse, it seems that many people would avoid her since they believed she would probably end up an old maid.

Interestingly, there is a proper etiquette for kissing under the mistletoe: first, the man can only kiss a woman or girl on the cheek and second, when he does so, he removes one berry from the mistletoe sprig. After all the berries are gone, the kissing ends, too. I would also caution one against kissing a relative such as cousins, uncles and aunts. I suppose it would be appropriate for husband and wife or spouse of either gender.

It's a strange history that we have altered along the way and crossing continents and cultures along the way. Whatever your opinion of this tradition and plant, it may have more good points than bad, and it has survived centuries.There are a number of other historical and botanical tidbits about mistletoe, so I took the preponderance of my research to write this post. You can pick up the plastic variety at just about any store or the real stuff at florists this time of year. Better get some chapstick while you're at it!