Mistletoe: Its Significance
At Valley
by Taryn Gifford
Mistletoe: a kiss-inducing
parasite. Yes, the plant that is so popular around the holidays
is actually a parasite that attaches itself to trees like oaks
and apple trees. Birds carry the berries from tree to tree, and
a few short days later, the mistletoe plant begins to grow and
spread at the top of tree, taking nutrients from the tree but
never killing it because it needs it in order to survive? But
why is mistletoe so highly revered today? And why do people kiss
under a parasite?
A long time ago, Celtic people believed that mistletoe was a type
of medicine that could be used against any type of illness and
even to take the poison out of certain types of poison. In the
Celtic language, mistletoe even means “cure-all.”
Closer to the meaning we have now, Norsemen created a myth that
related mistletoe to Frigga, the goddess of love. Loki, the god
of evil supposedly shot her son with an arrow of mistletoe, and
her tears became the mistletoe’s berries. But when Frigga
restored life to her son, she was so happy that she kissed everyone
who passed under the trees where mistletoe grew. In the eighteenth
century, English people called mistletoe a kissing ball. A girl
who stood under the mistletoe could not refuse to be kissed, and
when she did receive a kiss, one of the berries that grew on the
mistletoe had to be removed. When all of the berries were gone,
no more kisses.
Nowadays, mistletoe holds the same romantic-type meaning that
it did in the eighteenth century. You can get it around the holidays
at Christmas tree lots, and can even search for special types
online. Then you have to ask yourself, of course, who to stand
under the mistetoe with? Well, a couple guys and gals at Valley
volunteered to help demonstrate potential picks...
