, and is believed to be the
Golden Bough of
Aeneas, ancestor of the
Romans. In Ancient Greek mythology, mistletoe was used by heroes to access the underworld. The
Romans associated mistletoe with peace, love, and understanding. They hung mistletoe over doorways to protect the household.
Celtic (1900)
Pliny the Elder makes an account in his
Natural History about the
Celtic religious
Ritual of oak and mistletoe, in which
druids would climb
oak trees to cut down the mistletoe growing on it where it would then be turned into an elixir said to cure infertility and the effects of poison }}
Germanic , depicts the blind god
Höðr shooting his brother, the god
Baldr, with a mistletoe arrow "Things" are governing assemblies or forums in early Germanic society and similar gatherings appear in German mythology and historical accounts of the religious and social practices of the culture. Mistletoe appears in the thirteenth century
Prose Edda account of German traditions. One account relates that the goddess
Frigg required that everything swear an oath not to hurt her son
Baldr, except for mistletoe, because "it seemed too young" to be a threat to her son. At
thing gatherings of deities that followed, other deities began to have fun by shooting at him, or hurling stones, without him being injured at all. At one gathering however,
Loki, wishing Baldr dead, tricked the blind god
Höðr who was Baldr's brother, into throwing mistletoe at Baldr, killing him. In another version of the myth in , Baldr and Höðr are rival suitors for
Nanna, and Höðr kills Baldr with a sword named
Mistilteinn (
Old Norse "mistletoe"). Additionally, a sword by the same name also appears in
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks and
Hrómundar saga Gripssonar.
Christian When Christianity became widespread in Europe after the third century AD, the ancient religious or mystical respect for the mistletoe plant was absorbed only as a cultural tradition. In some way that is not presently understood, this may have led to the widespread custom of
kissing under the mistletoe plant during the Christmas season. The earliest documented evidence of the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe dates from sixteenth century England, a custom that was apparently very popular at that time.
Winston Graham reports a Cornish tradition that mistletoe was originally a fine tree from which the wood of the
Cross was made, but afterward it was condemned to live on only as a parasite. Mistletoe is commonly used as a
Christmas decoration, although such use was rarely alluded to until the eighteenth century. According to custom, the mistletoe must not touch the ground between its cutting and its removal as the last of Christmas greens at
Candlemas. It may remain hanging throughout the year, often to preserve the house from
lightning or fire, until it is replaced the following Christmas Eve. This tradition has spread throughout the English-speaking world, but is largely unknown in the rest of Europe. (The similar native species
Phoradendron leucarpum is used in
North America in lieu of the European
Viscum album.) According to an old Christmas custom, a man and a woman who meet under a hanging of mistletoe were obliged to
kiss. The custom may be of
Scandinavian origin. It was alluded to as common practice in 1808 and described in 1820 by American author
Washington Irving in his
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.: In Germany, the Christmas tradition is that people who kiss under mistletoe will have an enduring love or are bound to marry one another.
Other traditions Every year, the UK town of
Tenbury Wells holds a mistletoe festival and crowns a 'Mistletoe Queen'. == Contemporary uses ==