Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1914-12-17
HANGING M|STLET0E
Origin of Custom Associated
With Christmas Festivities.
Plant Is Surrounded With Many su-
persttiono in European Countries
Sign of III Omen In Some
Parts of Ireland.

- HE good old custom Of hang
ing mistletoe from the cell
ing at the Christmas festivi-
kx.EN2 ties is said to have its origin
in the idea that since the
plant did not have its roots in the
ground no part of it should ever be
permitted to touch the earth.
Among the Saxons the fact that mis-
| tletoe was suspended from the roof
| of a dwelling intimated to the way
farer that the hospitality of the house
was at his disposal, and beneath its
branches friend and stranger, vassal
and lord, gathered in comradeship and
| good cheer
The religious aspect of the mistle-
| toe tradition. which had its origin in
the Druidical rites and the gathering
| of it by the archdruid with his gold
en- sickle, merged later into a purely
| social symbol, and the idea OF simple
hospitality developed into one of mer-
rymaking and a somewhat riotous en-
tertsinment
The kiss of the Scandinavian god
dess expanded into the custom OF q
kiss given for every berry that grew
| on the bough. Small wonder that, in
| spite of the mistletoe having origin
| ally existed in the odor of the sanctu-
airy, the church came to regard 1t as
an entirely pagan symbol and refused
to allow 1t to participate with the
lily and the evergreen in the Yuletide
| decorations.
There is an ancient belief that the
mistletoe was the tree from which the
holy cross was hewn and that after
this was made the plant withered and
ever afterward became a mere para
site growth, clinging for support to
other and sturdier trees.
Other stories, however, credit It
with divine gifts in the healing of dis
eases and the expulsion of evil spirits.
Ram, the high priest of the Celts, re-
ceived in dream the intimation that
by means of the plant he would be
enabled to save his people from the
plague which was decimating them.
To celebrate their delivery he insti-
tuted the feast of Noel (new health
a midwinter holiday, which has come
to be considered coincident with the
new year
In many parts of the United King
dom the silver berries and the gray
green leaves of the mistletoe are
looked upon as anything but an en-
blem OF good cheer; on the contrary,
the plant is regarded with dread as be-
ing the bringer of i'll luck and the sign
of i'll omen. This superstition exists
both in Devonshire and in ireland,
and, strange to say, In neither of these
places does the plant flourish, owing,
report has it, to the fact that both
incurred the displeasure of the Druids
and were in consequence cursed in
such a way that their soil became in,
capable of nourishing the sacred
growth.
In the sixth book OF Aeneid a
lengthy description OF the mistletoe
is given by Virgil, who makes the
Sybii describe to his hero the exact
| spot in hades where he will find II
growing. There is little doubt that
the strange ethereal appearance Of
the little opaque berry is largely re
sponsible for the mystic character Il
has enjoyed among the people of d.
vers nations from the earliest histcr
ical times.