Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1917-12-13
HOW THE MISTLETOE CAME
MEAN KISSING

MEAN KISSING
We decorate our homes with
sprays of mistletoe at Christmas
time, but few of Us know the his
tory of it as a Yuletide symbol.
Pretty girls are kissed under it and
a great deal of fun and nonsense are
carried on appropos of it, but no one
stops to think of how ancient a dec
Grafton it is or how sacred it was
once thought to be. The ancient
Celts in their Druidical religion had
two great festivals, one in June and
the other in December, the latter
being equivalent to our Christmas.
In both of these great festivals the
gathering of mistletoe was a sacred
rite.
The Druids believed that a potion
prepared from mistletoe would in
crease their flocks and that the
plant was a remedy against all poi
son. 1t was believed to be a curative
for many ills, and this belief is still
to be found in many remote places
in Europe. In Laucaune, France,
for example, it is always administer
ed by the native jewellers as an ar
tidote for poison.
In the northeast Of Scotland peo-
pie used to cut withes of mistletoe
at the March full moon; these they
bent in circles and kept for a year
to cure hectic fevers and other trou-
bles. In Sweden ON midsummer eve
mistletoe is diligently sought for, the
people believing it to be possessed
of many mystic qualities and that
if a sprig of it is attached to the
ceiling of a dwelling house the
horses stall or the cows crib, the
trolls will then be powerless to in
jure either man or peast.
Many German peasants also con-
slider the mistletoe a powerful
charm against evil spirits. A SIM
liar belief seems to have fingered
among the Romans. When Aeneas
descended into Haedes he gathered
to protect himself from the Internal
powers a branch of mistletoe which
Virgil calls the golden bough.
The custom of kissing under the
mistletoe goes back to the days when
Thor and Odin and all the other
gods of the Northland walked and
talked with men. Baldwin, the son
of Odin and Friegga, the Apollo of
Scandinavian mythology, the flaxen
haired god of sunshine and it's at
tendant blessings, was loved by all
earthly and heavenly beings ave one
-Loki, the god Of earthly fire and
its attendant evils.
IIow of all things q. Ia te and in
animate in the world. except the
surly mistletoe, swore never to harm
the sun god and how Loki slew Bal
dur with a branch of it, has been
told with beautiful poetic power by
Matthew Arnold.
In Cancellation, hoping to soothc
the passionate sorrow of the mother
Friegga, they dedicated the mistletoe
to her. And now sin and sorrow had
hallowed it; for henceforth it was to
grow, not as a symbol Of bitterness
and hatred, but as a sign of tender
ness and love.
But the gods decreed that it was
to stand for these things only so long
as it touched not Loki's kingdom,
the soil; and for this reason 1t has
never been seen growing on the
ground and we ourselves always
hang it On the ceiling or on the
chandeliers. And now that it was
the plant of love, the custom arose
for enemies to become friends under
the mistletoe; for lovers to pledge
their troth beneath it; and for those
who meet there to kiss as a sign of
affectionate fellowship.