You can call it the castrator of the old king, a sex symbol, latent with fertility, or a good luck charm for a dairy herd. It has been used as an antidote against poison, a fire extinguisher, protection against evil spirits, a pain reliever for rheumatoid arthritis, and as a gift of peace between neighbors at war. This parasitic bush with sticky white berries has somehow shrugged off its dark past to become a tradition of our Christmas. But this is, after all, a season of myths, legends and fantasies.
Today, mistletoe, while not exactly gracing our hallways, is hung above doorways to entice a couple to exchange a kiss. And we have even forgotten the meaning of his name.
The name is perhaps derived from the ancient belief that mistletoe spread from bird droppings, a belief related to the then-accepted principle that life could spring spontaneously from dung. It was noted in ancient times that mistletoe often appeared on a branch or twig where birds had left droppings. “Mistel” is one of the Anglo-Saxon words for “dung” and “tan” is “twig”. So, mistletoe means “dung on a twig”. It’s not a name that would normally encourage thoughts of romance.
Kissing under the mistletoe was practiced in the Greek festival of Saturnalia to bestow fertility and the dung from which the mistletoe was thought to spring was honored for its life-giving power. Since the earliest times, mistletoe has been one of the most magical, mysterious and sacred plants in European folklore.
Scandinavians enjoy kissing under the mistletoe. They used to associate mistletoe with their goddess Freya and the role it played in the death of her son, Baldur the Fair. Once Baldur dreamed of his own death and, frantic with her anxiety, Freya asked all things, living and dead, not to harm her. Everything in her elements gave her this promise, but the mistletoe, a parasite, was not part of the air or the earth. Poor me! It was overlooked! Loki the Trickster soon discovered this and made an arrow out of the little bush. He tricked poor blind Bod into shooting the arrow at Baldur, with the inevitable result. Mistletoe grieved for her part in the tragedy, crying until her red berries paled and Freya forgave the plant with a kiss. The Vikings used a branch to presage peace.
Mistletoe is especially interesting from a botanical point of view because it is a partial parasite. French tradition tells us that mistletoe is poisonous because it grew on a tree that was used to make the cross for Jesus. Because of this, he was cursed and denied a place to live and grow on earth, forever doomed to be a parasite.
The mistletoe from the sacred oak was especially sacred to the ancient Celtic druids. The ritual of cutting the mistletoe symbolized the emasculation of the old king by his successor. Mistletoe was long considered a sex symbol and the “soul” of the oak. It was collected at both the summer and winter solstice, and the custom of using mistletoe to decorate houses at Christmas is a survival of this tradition.
In medieval times, boughs of mistletoe were hung from ceilings to ward off evil spirits and placed over the doors of houses and stables to keep out witches. Farmers would give the Christmas bouquet of mistletoe to the first cow to calve in the New Year, thus bringing good luck to the entire herd.
Mistletoe is also believed to lower blood pressure, improve circulation, and relieve rheumatoid arthritis pain, although these effects have not been scientifically validated. In some alternative medicine therapies, mistletoe is used as long-term therapy to prevent hardening of the arteries.
If you hang mistletoe this Christmas, follow proper etiquette: a man should pluck a berry when he kisses a woman under the mistletoe, and when the last berry is gone, there should be no more kissing! Remember that a single woman who doesn’t kiss under the branch will stay single for another year, and she always burns the Christmas mistletoe on the twelfth night so that all the couples who kissed under it never get married.
Come kiss me under the sprig of manure and raise your glass to the mistletoe and a Merry Christmas!
