The pagan custom of decorating with winter greenery was readily absorbed into early Christian culture, despite the resistance from some Catholic church leaders who opposed on principle anything heathen. The more pragmatic clergy, recognizing a losing battle when they saw one, sought to incorporate old ways with the new by grafting Christian symbolism onto deep-rooted non-Christian traditions.
When holly came to represent the crown of thorns, its berries the blood of Christ and ivy was said to signify the immortal soul, Catholic homes, workplaces and churches could piously be strewn with garlands of greenery during winter holy days.
Mistletoe was an exception. It alone was forbidden inside churches. That was because of its association with Druidic rituals. Druid veneration of the mistletoe plant was remarked as early as the first century AD by the Roman historian Plyine the Elder. He said: “The Druids, for thusly are the priests named, hold nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree that bears it, as long as that tree be an oak.”
Druids also believed that mistletoe had other mystical and magical powers, such as its use as an aphrodisiac. This, of course, drove the early church leaders wild and was a powerful reason on its own to ban its use in the church immediately. They could tolerate the killing of pagans and anyone else who disagreed with them, but bringing anything sexual into the mix was not to be tolerated.
In their efforts to Christianize pagan practices, some Catholic church leaders tried to replace the old mistletoe legends with Christian versions. In this newer allegory, the mistletoe was once a strong tree whose wood was used to make the cross. In its shame, the tree withered to a feeble plant and altered itself to become a medium for good luck.
During the Middle Ages, some people hung mistletoe from their ceilings to ward off spirits and prevent witches from entering the house.
Soon mistletoe’s popularity grew in homes and taverns because of its association with love. The plant’s reputation as a fertility symbol is the likely source of the kissing bough custom. One of the earliest known illustrations is a painting of King Henry VII celebrating Christmas at Westminster Hall in about 1500. Kissing boughs, made of clumps of evergreens and candles, hung from the ceiling. Eighteenth-century prints show mistletoe hung in taverns, coffeehouses and kitchens, where it produced the expected results of stealing kisses from young ladies below.
American author Washington Irving mentioned the kissing custom as practiced in New York. “The mistletoe is still hung up in farmhouses and kitchens at Christmas,” he wrote in 1820, “and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked, the privilege ceases.”
So you can see that mistletoe has a long and somewhat stormy history, and I bet you thought it was a harmless, silly and romantic game played by the young.
Oh by the way, during the course of looking into mistletoe, it was mentioned that you can grow, if you choose, your own mistletoe by smearing some slightly crushed, sticky mistletoe berries onto the branch of a hardwood tree. If the seeds germinate, green shoots will be visible in the second year and cuttings may by ready the Christmas after that.
It may represent a long time to wait for a kiss, but those of a certain age may say that the long wait for a kiss may be secondary to the fact we may not be alive by the time the mistletoe is ready to be used!
The Gilberts are award-winning historians with a passion for telling the stories of C-K’s fascinating past.