You can contact it the emasculator of the old king, a sexual symbol, latent with fertility or a great luck charm for a dairy herd. It is been used as an antidote for poison, a fire suppressant, a protection against evil spirits, a pain reliever for rheumatoid arthritis and as a present of peace in between warring neighbours. This parasitic shrub with sticky white berries has somehow shrugged off its shady past to turn out to be a custom of our Christmas. But this is, following all, a season of myth, legend, and make believe.

Today mistletoe, while not exactly decking our halls, is hung over doorways to entice a few to exchange a kiss. And we have forgotten even the which means of its name.

The name is maybe derived from the ancient perception that mistletoe was propagated from bird droppings, a perception associated to the then-accepted principle that life could spring spontaneously from dung. It was observed in ancient times that mistletoe would frequently appear on a branch or twig exactly where birds had left droppings. “Mistel” is 1 of the Anglo-Saxon words for “dung,” and “tan” is “twig”. So, mistletoe means “dung-on-a-twig”. Not a name that would usually encourage ideas of romance.

Kissing beneath the mistletoe was practiced in the Greek festival of Saturnalia to bestow fertility and the dung from which the mistletoe was believed to arise was honoured for its life-giving power. From the earliest times mistletoe has been 1 of the most magical, mysterious, and sacred plants of European folklore.

Scandivanians appreciate kissing beneath the mistletoe. In previously days they linked mistletoe with their goddess Freya and the component it played in the death of her son, Baldur the Beautiful. As soon as Baldur had a dream of his own death and, frantic in her anxiousness, Freya asked all issues, living and dead, not to harm him. She was offered this promise by every thing in the elements, but the mistletoe, a parasite, was no component of air or earth. Alas ! It was overlooked ! Loki the Trickster quickly discovered this, and produced an arrow from the little shrub. He tricked poor blind Bod into shooting the arrow at Baldur – with the unavoidable outcome. The mistletoe grieved for its component in the tragedy, weeping until its red berries turned pale, and Freya forgave the plant with a kiss. Vikings used a branch to betoken peace.

Mistletoe is especially fascinating botanically simply because it is a partial parasite. French custom tells us that mistletoe is poisonous simply because it was growing on a tree that was used to make the cross of Jesus. Simply because of this, it was cursed and denied a place to reside and grow on earth, doomed forever to be a parasite.

The mistletoe of the sacred oak was especially sacred to the ancient Celtic Druids. The ritual of cutting the mistletoe symbolised the emasculation of the old King by his successor. Mistletoe was long regarded as each a sexual symbol and the “soul” of the oak. It was gathered at each mid-summer and winter season solstices, and the customized of using mistletoe to decorate houses at Christmas is a survival of this custom.

In medieval times branches of mistletoe were hung from ceilings to ward off evil spirits and positioned over house and stable doorways to prevent the entrance of witches. Farmers would give the Christmas bunch of mistletoe to the first cow that calved in the New Yr therefore bringing great luck to the whole herd.

Mistletoe is also believed to lower blood stress, enhance circulation and relieve the pain of rheumatoid arthritis even though these effects have not been scientifically validated. In some option medicine therapies, mistletoe is used as long-term therapy to prevent hardening of the arteries.

If you hang up mistletoe this Christmas, make sure you follow the correct etiquette: a guy should pluck a berry when he kisses a lady beneath the mistletoe, and when the final berry is gone, there should be no more kissing ! Remember that an unmarried lady not kissed beneath the branch will stay single for an additional yr, and always burn the Christmas mistletoe on the twelfth evening lest all the partners who kissed beneath it never marry.

Come, kiss me beneath the dung-on-a-twig and raise your glass to mistletoe and a Merry Christmas!

Susanna Duffy is a Civil Celebrant, grief counsellor and mythologist. She produces ceremonies and Rites of Passage for individual and civic functions, and specialises in Celebrations for Women