Mistletoe: a short and strange history

Mitletoe fans assume that the reason we kiss under the plant - a hemiparasitic shrub that has been used to treat cancer - dates back millennia: possibly to the Druids Celtic, possibly to a Norse myth. But according to Judith Flanders, senior researcher at the University of Buckingham and author of “Christmas: A Biography,” the origins of the tradition are actually a mystery.
“ We don't know when it started, we don't know why it started, and we don't know where it started,” she said.
What do we know? The British have long decorated for Christmas with conifers - and, since at least the 17th century, more specifically with mistletoe. Ms Flanders also said that in parts of Britain's working class in the 18th and early 19th century, some people used greenery to make decorative "kissing branches".
Like because why were they called that? What if mistletoe was involved? Again, a mystery.
Then, circa 1820, we have it: one of the earliest written accounts of kisses under the mistletoe. It comes from a series of short stories, many of them set in England, by American author Washington Irving. (The same series also introduced readers to Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless Horseman.)
"Mistletoe still hangs in farmhouses and kitchens at Christmas,” Mr. Irving writes, “and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls below, each time picking a berry from the bush. When the berries are all picked, the privilege ceases. »
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Fashion Dec 17, 2022 0 47 Add to Reading List

Mitletoe fans assume that the reason we kiss under the plant - a hemiparasitic shrub that has been used to treat cancer - dates back millennia: possibly to the Druids Celtic, possibly to a Norse myth. But according to Judith Flanders, senior researcher at the University of Buckingham and author of “Christmas: A Biography,” the origins of the tradition are actually a mystery.

“ We don't know when it started, we don't know why it started, and we don't know where it started,” she said.

What do we know? The British have long decorated for Christmas with conifers - and, since at least the 17th century, more specifically with mistletoe. Ms Flanders also said that in parts of Britain's working class in the 18th and early 19th century, some people used greenery to make decorative "kissing branches".

Like because why were they called that? What if mistletoe was involved? Again, a mystery.

Then, circa 1820, we have it: one of the earliest written accounts of kisses under the mistletoe. It comes from a series of short stories, many of them set in England, by American author Washington Irving. (The same series also introduced readers to Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless Horseman.)

"Mistletoe still hangs in farmhouses and kitchens at Christmas,” Mr. Irving writes, “and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls below, each time picking a berry from the bush. When the berries are all picked, the privilege ceases. »

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