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To Kiss: Why We Kiss Under the Mistletoe at Christmas
| Article
# : |
18768 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1991 |
2,923 Words |
| Author
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Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr., and Sylvia Grider
Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr., is professor of anthropology and head
of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University.
Sylvia Grider is associate professor professor of anthropology
at Texas A&M University and the current president of the
American Folklore Society. |
While growing up in Texas we were intrigued by a boast, often made by the citizens of Goldthwaite, a small town in west central Texas. On the outskirts of this town is a large sign proclaiming it the Mistletoe Capital of the World. Most Texans like to boast, but this claim, we thought, had to be a joke. Yet, it may be true. Each Christmas season a company in Goldthwaite collects and ships more than one million packages of mistletoe to cities all over North America.
Mentioning this boast often brought laughter from the students in our introductory folklore classes at Texas A&M in College Station. But when the laughter stopped, students wondered why this small, parasitic plant had become the basis of a million-dollar commercial industry in our society. Students were even more curious about why we kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas.
We had no ready answer. Thus we began our odyssey searching not only for the origins of man's fascination with mistletoe, but also asking why this plant is associated with Christmas and why we traditionally use it as an excuse to steal a kiss.
Search begins with Celts
Part of this tradition dates back to the Celts, who dominated Europe from the fifth do the first centuries B.C. Among these aggressive and warlike people an influential priestly caste, called Druids, acted as judges and conducted religious activities. Romans such as Julius Caesar, Pomponius Mela, Tacitus, and Pliny the Elder wrote extensively about both the Celts and the Druid rites, and it was among these writings that we found our first clues about the importance of mistletoe.
The early writings of Pliny the Elder were most useful. He notes that the Druids revered the oak as the most sacred of trees and that no Druid was ever seen without an oak twig hanging from his apparel. It is because of the Druids' reverence for the oak, and the powerful spirits they believed resided inside its wood, that we still "knock on wood" for good luck. Druids often tapped on oak trees to awaken the sleeping spirits and ask for good luck.
Roman historians noted that each year, around November, the Druids presided over the winter celebration of Samhain, which has evolved into our Halloween. By then, the sacred oaks were barren except for the green boughs of mistletoe growing from their branches, a sign, the Druids believed, of eternal fertility. With time, the
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