Misteltoe’s (Old English, “Misseltan,” meaning, “missel twig”) standing as an
icon of the winter holiday stems from very ancient beliefs. How did this rather
ugly, poisonous plant became so popular? The answer lies in ancient sun worship,
particularly of the Celtic Druids.
The mistletoe has several qualities that made it attractive to these tree
revering ancient Celts. The Celtic Druids were skilled in herbal medicine and
magic; mistletoe was by far the most sacred of their magical plants. It grew
amongst the branches of the sacred trees, seemingly without sustenance. Having
no roots, it was considered the sacred plant of the sun.
A tree that hosted a mistletoe plant was a tree marked as particularly sacred by
the gods. Gold in color, and growing high off the ground without roots, it was
naturally associated with the sun. Most specifically, it was considered to be
the sperm of the solar deity Taranis, the promise of the sun God’s rebirth.
It was believed that mistletoe took on the properties of its host tree (this has
much truth to it, as mistletoe feeds on its host tree), containing its essence
and power. The most powerful mistletoe, of course, grew on the sacred oak. (The
name Druid is believed to be a compound of two words, Dru and Vid, strength and
wisdom- oak and mistletoe!)
Old Norse tales of mistletoe’s origin blame the plant for the death of the
sun-god Baldur, who is felled by a dart made of mistletoe, the only plant his
mother neglected after a prophecy of the god’s death; some versions of the story
tell that the plant became a tree-dweller after the wrathful goddess flung it
there.
Pliny the Elder wrote in his ancient writings that the Druid priests used
mistletoe in a ceremony. This ritual lasted five days and was conducted after
the new moon after the Winter Solstice. The gathering of the mistletoe was
itself a ceremony as they journeyed into forests with a golden sickle to cut
loose the mistletoe from the Sacred Oak, which was a solemn ritual.
Sprigs of the mistletoe were given out to the people of the villages, in order
to protect them from evil. Druids believed that all plants and trees had a soul
and that the mistletoe contained the soul of the Sacred Oak from which it had
clung to. Their thought process came from the fact that the mistletoe drew it’s
nourishment from the Oak and it keeps the tree green during the winter.
When the weather turned cold the leaves dropped from deciduous host trees,
revealing the sacred leaves and waxy white berries- a promise of the return of
the sun. During the period of the Winter Solstice, branches were harvested with
great ceremony and used for a variety of magical and medical purposes-
protection from lightning and fire, curing of poisoning, etc. Branches would be
cut from the trees on a day sacred to the moon, and sacrifices of livestock
offered in return for the precious gift.
Belief in the magical powers of mistletoe has long outlived the Druids.Ancient
Celts believed the mistletoe was full of miraculous healing and strong
benevolent powers. They believed that the mistletoe could not only heal and
protect from evil, but that it also brought good luck and blessings to those who
possessed it. In medieval times, the plant was called allheal, and used
medicinally for a variety of ailments, from epilepsy to cancer. Sprigs were hung
in stables to protect livestock from the mischief of fairies, and over cradles
to protect babes from the vexation of witches. In Scandinavia, its branches were
fashioned into dowsing rods to search for treasure. An old English superstition
held that as long as a sprig was retained in the home, so would love be
retained. It became popular in some households to insure that a fresh sprig was
installed in the household every year, and this is probably where the origin of
the kissing ritual can be found.
The Celtic people believed in the power of the mistletoe to help defeat enemies and
bring about peace, so the tradition of hanging the sprigs above doorways at
Christmas time became a symbol of peace and goodwill to any who enter. This
belief actually originated in Scandinavia and spread to the Celtic peoples.
As with other evergreen plants, such as holly, pine, fir, and laurel, the
mistletoe was very special to the Celtic and other ancient peoples because the
colors of these plants kept the landscape beautiful throughout the dark and cold
winter months. They were, and still are, a hopeful reminder that spring and
rebirth is not far away.
Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854, Glasgow, Scotland â May 7, 1941),
was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the
modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. In The Golden Bough,
Chapter 65, Sir James George Frazer writes, From time immemorial the mistletoe
has been the object of superstitious veneration in Europe. It was worshipped by
the Druids, as we learn from a famous passage of Pliny. After enumerating the
different kinds of mistletoe, he proceeds: In treating of this subject, the
admiration in which the mistletoe is held throughout Gaul ought not to pass
unnoticed. The Druids, for so they call their wizards, esteem nothing more
sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows, provided only that the
tree is an oak.
A priestess with sickle and crown of mistletoe
The uniquely English tradition involved hanging clumps of the plant in halls and
doorways, where it served as a bit of a love charm- and as an ice breaker
between interested couples. As the superstition went, one who wasn’t kissed would
not be married within that year- an incentive for the romantically inclined to
be sure to find themselves underneath a sprig at a convenient moment. According
to this same tradition, the plant was burned at the end of the season, to
prevent the charm from backfiring and creating enemies rather than friends. As
late as the early twentieth century, a sprig of mistletoe was believed to bring
dreams of a future husband when placed under the pillow of a hopeful young
woman.
The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, 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.
