Mistletoe Traditions And Kissing Customs Article

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Mistletoe Traditions and Kissing Customs

Why do we kiss under the mistletoe? Read about the origins of Mistletoe and Christmas. Most of our mistletoe traditions and customs come from ancient religions.

Author: S. Roberts

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Mistletoe has many traditions associated with it, we many think today that mistletoe is simply an excuse to steal a kiss, but it wasn’t so long ago that it was believed that if you kissed your love beneath mistletoe and you'll stay in love and that the kiss would lead inevitably to marriage.

In pre-Christian times the evergreen was worshiped because it symbolized enduring life, and sometimes taken into the home at years end to bring luck and fortune in the year ahead.

The Druids believed that mistletoe protected its possessors from all misfortunes, and used it as an aphrodisiac, an antidote for poison, and to bestow long life and fertility. Kissing under the mistletoe came about because of the belief that mistletoe's curative powers would cure a broken heart and soothe the differences between quarrelling lovers. Druid priests gave mistletoe to people to hang over a doorway or in a room was to offer goodwill to visitors. The Druids called Mistletoe, All-Heal.

Mistletoe was considered a powerful plant because According to legend, the mistletoe growing on oak trees represented the oaks heart or soul, and the mighty oak tree can live for many hundreds of years.

According to pagan traditions the god Loki in envy killed the handsome god Balder with a dart made from the mistletoe. According to this pagan tradition the mistletoe dart was plucked out of Balder's fatal wound and given to the goddess of love, Frigga (Balder’s mother). Frigga's tears of mourning were so wretched that the hapless mistletoe took pity on her. From that time on it bore milky white berries that were formed from her tears.

In a similar sort of story, mistletoe was said to have been the tree used to make Christ’s cross and, therefore, condemned to never be able to grow on God’s earth. Thus it grows as a parasite by putting roots into another tree. Again Mistletoe is the weapon used to kill the son of a god, and the link to Christian religion lends itself to the Christmas traditions.

Of course as the years rolled by the mistletoe customs were embraced by new generations and a new set of traditions evolved, which were lightly based on the old beliefs.

Kisses were limited however in the Victorian tradition, as one berry had to be plucked off the plant for each kiss. When the berries were gone, there were to be no more kisses.

But it’s not all just about love and kisses. An old superstition says that if you burned mistletoe that it would banish evil. And so mistletoe was thrown onto the fire to cleanse the house of evil spirits.

Today, mistletoe is still placed over a doorway during the holiday season. Kissing under the mistletoe has become an established part of the Christmas tradition. Sprigs of mistletoe are hung around the house, often over doorways, and anyone lucky or unfortunate enough to be caught standing under a sprig has to oblige with a kiss.

It’s strange that with such a rich tapestry of old customs attached to mistletoe, that the traditions of today focus on the kissing element of the plant; and that the other beliefs of healing properties, and warding off evil spirits have been forgotten. Maybe it’s that Christmas brings out the romantic nature in us all, that we have clung to the kissing plants more intimate customs of giving kisses.

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Mistletoe Traditions and Kissing Customs