Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
12/9/02
Contacts:
Linda Naeve, Reiman Gardens, (515) 294-8946, lnaeve@iastate.edu
Barb Abbott, Continuing Education and Communication Services, (515) 294-4843,
babbott@iastate.edu
Yard and Garden Column for the Week Beginning December 13, 2002
The Tradition of Mistletoe
By
Linda Naeve
Extension Coordinator, Reiman Gardens
Iowa State University
Traditions. Have you ever wondered where they come from or why they stick around? Tevye, the father in the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" tried to maintain old traditions in his family while the world was changing around him. Holidays are a time when many traditions, no matter how old-fashioned, are remembered. One tradition that I could never understand shows up every holiday season - mistletoe.
As Europeans immigrated to America, the traditions associated with the European mistletoe were transferred to a similar plant found growing native here. The European mistletoe, Viscum album, is a green shrub with small, yellow flowers and white berries. The mistletoe commonly used here in holiday decorations, Phoradendron flavescens, has small, leathery leaves and produces small white berries. It is native to North America and can be found growing in deciduous trees from New Jersey and southern Indiana down to Florida and Texas.
When I consider its growth habit and how it got its name, it is amazing how this lowly, semiparasitic plant has become so imbedded in holiday tradition. Although it can produce its own food through photosynthesis, mistletoe grows on the branches or trunk of a tree where it produces roots that grow into the tree to rob it of water and nutrients.
The common name of the plant is derived from the ancient belief that mistletoe was propagated from bird droppings left in the trees. "Mistel" is the Anglo-Saxon word for "dung" and "tan" is the word for "twig." So, translated, mistletoe means "dung-on-a-twig." This translation is definitely not a glamorous one for a plant that has the distinction of being the state flower of Oklahoma!
Mistletoe sold during the holidays is gathered in the wild, not cultivated. Most mistletoe is harvested in Oklahoma and Texas. It is often sold with artificial, plastic berries because mistletoe berries are poisonous to humans. Another reason is that the fresh berries may soften and spoil in the packaging.
Back to traditions. Mistletoe dates back to ancient times and is linked to pagan ceremonies involving the winter solstice. Because mistletoe is able to bear fruit even in winter, several cultures associated it with fertility. Welsh farmers believed a healthy mistletoe crop foretold a good harvest the following season. Mistletoe also was thought to influence human fertility and was prescribed to people who had fertility problems.
As Christianity superseded early pagan religions, traditions involving the mistletoe gradually became incorporated into Christmas celebrations and other Christian legends. When Jesus was crucified, legend says that mistletoe was the only species that would allow itself to be used to make the cross. In punishment, mistletoe was condemned to spend its life as a lowly parasite of other trees.
The custom of exchanging a kiss under the mistletoe had different meanings. In Scandinavia, mistletoe was considered a plant of peace, under which enemies could declare a truce or warring spouses could kiss and make up. In some cultures it was believed that if a couple in love exchanged a kiss under the mistletoe, it was meant as a promise to marry, as well as a prediction of happiness and a long life. Today, however, the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe is used more as an "opportunity" and sign of friendship and goodwill than as a prediction of future marital bliss.
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