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Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?
Thanks for asking.
Mistletoe is a small evergreen parasitic plant that grows in clusters on trees.
It has white berries and it's been used for centuries as a symbol of love, fertility and peace.
But how did it become associated with kissing?
The Greeks used mistletoe as a cure for all sorts of ailments, while the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder noted it could be used as a balm against epilepsy, ulcers and poisons.
The Druids came to view it as a sacred symbol of vivacity, and they gave it to humans and animals alike in the hope of restoring fertility.
However, one of the most popular legends about mistletoe, and probably the reason we associate this plant with kissing, dates back to Norse mythology.
According to this story, there was a goddess named Frigg who loved her son Baldr, the god of light and innocence, and wanted to make sure that no harm would come to him.
She asked all living things and even objects to swear an oath to not harm him.
However, she forgot to include mistletoe.
So Loki, a god of mischief, made an arrow from a sprig of mistletoe and was able to shoot and kill Balder dead.
Some different versions claim that the gods were able to resurrect him from the dead and delighted his mother.
Frigg then declared mistletoe would forevermore be a symbol of love and vowed to plant a kiss on all those who passed beneath it.
How did kissing under the mistletoe become popular?
Mistletoe's strong associations with fertility and vitality continued through the Middle Ages, and by the 18th century it had become a staple of Christmas celebrations, though there are different ideas as to how it got there.
The earliest reference to kissing under the mistletoe comes from a song published in 1784, and Dickens includes a scene of kissing under the mistletoe in his novel The Pickwick Papers, published in 1837.
The kissing tradition appears to have first become popular amongst servants in England before spreading to the middle classes, and by the reign of Queen Victoria in the 1800s it was firmly established in both England and the United States.
In America, the popularity of kissing under the mistletoe as a Christmas tradition can be traced back to Washington Irving's 1820s collection of stories, The Sketchbook.
In Rip Van Winkle the narrator mentions how Rip Van Winkle's wife kissed him under a mistletoe on Christmas Eve.
The huge popularity of this story helped to spread the tradition.
What exactly is the tradition?
Well, if you find yourself under the mistletoe, men are allowed to kiss any woman they find standing underneath, and refusing was considered bad luck.
Another tradition said that after every kiss you had to pick a berry from the mistletoe and stop kissing once the berries were all gone.
There you have it.
Now you know why we kiss under the mistletoe.
In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines.
Listen along and you really will know for sure.
