MISTLETOE HOLY BOUGH
Many people assume that Mistletoe is used because of its Druidical associations. And because people kiss under the mistletoe, it is assumed it is because it was a fertility plant.
In fact neither of these reasons is directly related to the use of Mistletoe as a Christmas decoration.
In the middle ages, people used to make a double hoop of evergreens twined around a pliable wood such as willow. This made a spherical object with four side of evergreens - anything which was green would do, such as holly, bay, rosemary, box, yew. In the middle they would put a symbol of the Holy Family, or maybe a Baby Jesus set on a mossy bed. The bough later became decorated with ribbons, gilded nuts, fruits etc., and mistletoe was used again for its decorative quality.
This bough, called properly, a Holy Bough, was set up hanging from a beam just inside the house entrance. The local priest would bless the boughs in his parish at a special ceremony. Rather like the Kiss of Peace in many churches today, the idea was to embrace under this bough, any visitor who came to the house over the Christmas Season, as a sign that all bad feeling and enmity was forgotten. The custom went to Britain from Germany, where a small Fir tree top was hung upside-down in the same way.
When the Parliamentarians and Puritans under Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas and all its associations, these Holy Boughs were banned too. But people who lived well away from the prying eyes of the soldiers, in the very rural areas of Britain, still hung up a rough bunch of evergreens to remind them of the custom. Of course there was no baby Jesus, and no ribbons and gilded nuts, just a bunch tied to a hook, usually in the kitchen, where they could say that they were drying herbs, or hanging greens to dry repel flies in the summer. Secretly they still exchanged a symbolic embrace under the boughs, and some of them were still blessed by recusant priests, who under pain of death would travel around the Catholic and Anglo-Catholic houses tending the spiritual needs of their people.
Although this ban lasted a few short decades, many customs did not re-establish as they were before, but remained country customs in their new form. By the 18th century the Holy Bough had become known as the 'Holly Bough' or 'Holly Bunch'. The quick kiss under it largely done as a tradition rather than as a symbol of peace. It was also known as the 'Mistletoe Bough' and the 'Kissing' Bunch'. The name change marking the change in the custom from Holy Bough to Kissing Bunch!
When Queen Victoria ascended the British throne, she, in her later years disapproved of some of the 'vulgar' customs associated with Christmas. So there began a new custom, each time a kiss was stolen under the mistletoe , a berry was plucked off, and when there were no more berries, there were to be no more kisses!
This custom remained a British custom for a long time, and only in the mid-20th century did it begin to spread to other countries. At the same time, natural evergreens began to be superseded by artificial decorations. Crepe paper twists and glued paper chains were popular in both America and Britain in the late 19th century, but usually still sharing a place with Holly stuck behind mirrors and pictures, which had enjoyed undisturbed popularity for centuries.
