In millions of homes in Europe and the United States, the mistletoe is hung up at Christmastime. According to a happy custom, when a girl is standing under the mistletoe, a man is allowed to kiss her.

Curiously enough, the use of the mistletoe on holidays and ceremonial occasions goes back to quite ancient times. When the Romans invaded Britain and Gaul (now called France), the people who lived there were called Celts. These Celts were organized under a strong order of priests called Druids.

The Druids taught that the soul of man was immortal. Many of their rites were connected with the worship of trees, and they considered that whatever grew on a tree was a gift from heaven. Among the most sacred of these “gifts” was the mistletoe. They would cut the mistletoe with a golden knife and hang it over their doors to ward off evil spirits. According to them, only happiness could enter under the mistletoe. This was actually the beginning of the tradition of the kiss under the mistletoe!

Among the Scandinavian people, too, the mistletoe was considered lucky. They gathered it up during their winter festivals and each family received a bit of it to hang up over the entrance to their home. This was supposed to protect the family from evil spirits.

One reason the mistletoe came to be considered sacred is that it is a plant that has no roots in the earth. It grows on the branches of other trees. When the mistletoe is very young and just developing from a seed, it produces tiny outgrowths. These pierce the bark of the limb on which the seed fell. After they have grown through the bark to the wood, they spread out and in this way absorb a part of the moisture and the food which the tree contains.

The food and moisture go to nourish the young mistletoe plant, which then grows as most other plants do. So you see it has no direct connection with the soil and it doesn’t need any! Sometimes, the mistletoe grows so abundantly it kills the tree that has given it life.

The mistletoe grows on oak and other kinds of trees in many parts of Europe and the U.S.A. The berries which the plant produces are loved by birds. When they eat them, the sticky seeds cling to their beaks. In trying to remove them, the birds rub their beaks on other trees and so spread the seeds!