The pagan custom of decorating with winter greenery was readily absorbed into early Christian culture despite resistance from some church leaders who opposed anything heathen on principle.
The pagan custom of decorating with winter greenery was readily absorbed into early Christian culture despite resistance from some church leaders who opposed anything heathen on principle.
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 and its berries the blood of Christ, and ivy was said to signify the immortal soul, Christian homes, workplaces and churches could piously be strewn with garlands of greenery during winter holy days.
Mistletoe alone was forbidden in Christian churches, due to its association with Druidic rituals. Druid veneration of the plant was noted as early as the first century AD by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, who said. “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 mistletoe had other mystical and magical powers, including as an aphrodisiac. Of course, anything sexual drove early Christian church leaders wild and was a powerful reason to ban its use in the church.
In their efforts to Christianize pagan practices, some church leaders tried to replace 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. This served to cast a whole new light on mistletoe.
Soon its popularity grew in homes and taverns because of its association with love. Mistletoe’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, hang from the ceiling. Eighteenth-century prints show mistletoe hung in taverns, coffeehouses and kitchens where it produces the expected results of stealing kisses from young ladies below.
American author Washington Irving mentioned the kissing custom in New York. “Mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses 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 mistletoe has a long, somewhat stormy history. And I bet you thought it was a harmless, silly and romantic game played by the young.
While looking into mistletoe, I learned you can grow 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 the second year and cuttings may by ready the Christmas after that – a long time to wait for a kiss.
Let Lisa and I be the first to wish you an early merry Christmas, and don’t forget to hang the mistletoe!
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Gilberts: Mistletoe has long, somewhat sordid history
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01.12.2023
The pagan custom of decorating with winter greenery was readily absorbed into early Christian culture despite resistance from some church leaders who opposed anything heathen on principle.
The pagan custom of decorating with winter greenery was readily absorbed into early Christian culture despite resistance from some church leaders who opposed anything heathen on principle.
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 and its berries the blood of Christ, and ivy was said to signify the immortal soul, Christian homes, workplaces and churches could piously be strewn with garlands of greenery during winter holy days.
Mistletoe alone was forbidden in Christian churches, due to its association with Druidic rituals. Druid veneration of the plant was noted as early as the first century AD by the........
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