Now comes the time to hang the kissing bough with its mistletoe from the ceiling of the living room. Old timers say that if a girl with marrying on her mind wanted to be wed in the coming year she must be kissed under the mistletoe at Christmas time. In the day, many a boy and girl sealed their vows with a kiss under the mistletoe bough. This ritual betokened happiness, good fortune, long life and fertility.
Yesteryear, there was a lot of maneuvering that went on among the young folk to get their true love under the mistletoe for a kiss. The correct procedure, now rarely observed, was that as the young man kissed a girl under the mistletoe he plucked a berry and that when the last berry was gone there should be no more kissing. Nowadays, the old custom of kissing under the mistletoe serves as an excuse for young people…and some not so young, to get a kiss with the least trouble.
Mistletoe has always grown in profusion in our mountains. And this year there is a bumper crop that has an unusual amount of waxy white berries. The tops of the oaks back out in the hills are lavish with mistletoe.
In addition to serving a kissing ritual, mistletoe once was regarded highly by practitioners of folk medicine. Mountaineers believed that an infusion prepared from the leaves and twigs of mistletoe would relieve spasms, cure sterility, control epilepsy and act against poisons. Modern research has disclosed that the active principle of mistletoe not only relieves hypertensions but is valuable in treating nervous disorders. In the realm of folk medicine, mistletoe was called allheal. A potion from the berries was given to man, woman and beast to make them fruitful. It also had the reputation for alleviating the ills of old age.
Most of the customs and magic associated with mistletoe were fetched over from the Old Country by the folks who settled these mountains. And from the earliest times it was regarded as mysterious and sacred by the Cherokee.
And now that Christmas is almost here there will be many a kiss under the mistletoe before it is over…just you wait and see!