Looking For Romance?

This post is all about Mistletoe and how it came about. It was first associated with the Greek festival of Saturnalia and primitive marriage rites. They thought that the mistletoe bestow fertility and possessed life giving power. Later, in the eighteenth-century English held a kissing ball. At Christmas time a young lady standing under a ball of mistletoe, brightly trimmed with evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments, could not refuse to be kissed. Such a kiss could mean deep romance or lasting friendship and goodwill. If the girl remained unkissed, she could expect not to marry the following year. In some parts of England the Christmas mistletoe is burned on the twelfth night lest all the boys and girls who have kissed under it never marry. It was described in 1820 by the American author Washington Irving in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon.
"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."

Not every legend about mistletoe is a good one. One said that the wood of the cross of Christ was made from mistletoe, and supposedly for that reason the mistletoe plant has been doomed to live as a parasite, and is so classified today, making it condemned to live on the goodwill of other trees.

But weather it's good or bad if your looking for a fun tradition, or maybe just a little kiss this holiday season. Hang up some mistletoe, you never know you might just get lucky.