Mistletoe: the symbol of Christmas!

"I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus". This sentence from a well-known Christmas song says what matters. Mommy kissing Santa Claus under the mistletoe at Christmas. And mistletoe is a symbol for Christmas, inviting cushion and brings good luck! But where this tradition? And what is really mistletoe? How the plant grows and what are its properties? A little explanation of this mysterious spheres that stand out so beautifully against the bare winter silhouettes and tradition around.

A little history

Celts

The Celts regarded mistletoe as a sacred plant. They collected only on an oak mistletoe grew. This is in fact very rare. They saw mistletoe as a universal healer. To remove mistletoe from the oak and it was all ceremony. At the site of the incident, two white bulls charged. The Druid, dressed in a white robe, climbed into the tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle. The cut twig was collected in a white sheet. The branch could not come in contact with the earth, for it took the magical powers of the plant lost. Then two white bulls were sacrificed. The sacrifices were for including Freya, the goddess of fertility. The Celts believed that is a drink made from mistletoe was fertile and sterile animals that the plant was a remedy against all poison. This was all carefully recorded by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia. In the comics of Asterix and Obelix uses the druid Panoramix, dressed in a white robe, the mistletoe as an ingredient in the secret potion that Obelix so strong.

Christianity

Before the advent of Christianity, mistletoe was considered a sacred plant with magical powers. As Christianity became important, it was not possible to mistletoe so to banish from the houses. Thus, it was patience that mistletoe was present around Christmas time, but Epiphany had all the green road. Continued after that day in the green house to do but it brought misfortune! And so it was all the green burned. Our Christmas tree burns are a remnant from that time.

What is mistletoe anyway?

Half Parasite

Mistletoe Viscum album is half or parasite. He formed his own chlorophyll and thus takes energy from sunlight, water and minerals for the plant depends on its host. Host a hawthorn, or a maple, a willow, a poplar tree, a linden and fruit trees. Especially on apple trees, the mistletoe very well. On oak mistletoe is extremely rare, hence the Celts the mistletoe on the oak as a sacred plant considered. In the Netherlands, mistletoe a protected plant in Belgium, he is not protected.

Spread

Mistletoe grows in places where much calcium in the soil. In Belgium it is mainly in the east of the country, particularly in the border region and in the Gaume. In the Netherlands, the plant is found mainly in southern Limburg. Also find him in Germany and Denmark. The plant is spread by birds. They eat the white berries in the armpit of a tree branch. The seeds are then stay there. There they germinate and the root grows in the tree. This does not always happen. Therefore it is so difficult to create mistletoe grafting on another tree. It will succeed, one must still wait for years before one is slightly convex. The plant grows almost each leaf to leaf. It takes about seventy years before making a sphere with a diameter of one meter. This also explains why mistletoe is so rare and so expensive!

Names and meaning

In the word mistletoe we see the strain "mare", which also occurs in the word nightmare. Mare means "angry, angry". The plant was therefore used to dispel evil and therefore he was so often hung in the house. Also, the plant was hung from the beams in the barns, the mare, the evil spirit, and thus to drive the cattle to keep fertile. For mistletoe, there are many other names. Thus the plant called mistletoe, because of the viscosity or stickiness of white berries. Further, he also called mistletoe or mistletoe. This name was a Germanic or Anglo-Saxon origin. Fog would "manure, bird droppings" mean and tan twig. In fact Misteltoe means branch is spread through bird droppings, which refers to how the plant spread itself. Also called half this parasite also: tree herb, devil's grass, devil's nest, hamschel, hamspoen, witch nest, holster, hulster, kersterhout, glue herb, matting grass, priemst, raamsch, snake tongue and viscus. The French called this plant gui, Bois de Sainte-Croix, verquet, Blondeau and cork.

Medicinal properties

Plant bulbs and are extremely toxic! So it is very important not to take with experiment! Intake and consumption can lead to coma and even death. Nevertheless, the plant has many properties geneeskrahtige once incorporated into medicines. Thus mistletoe in cancer therapy are admitted to apply immune stimulating properties. In adult-onset diabetes (type II) would also stimulate insulin production. Intake should always be done under medical supervision, because intake in combination with other drugs can be very dangerous. Already in herbal medicine at the time of Hippocrates and Dodoens mistletoe was used for its medicinal properties.

Kissing under the mistletoe

The kiss under the mistletoe is a use that was born in England in the 18th century. But the origins of this use goes back much further. According to legend, the Scandinavian god Balder protected by the fact that his mother, Frigga, had determined that her son would never be affected by a plant. But she had forgotten the mistletoe. Balder was very liked and very popular. Loki, another deity, this was very jealous and used Hodi, the blind twin brother of Balder, to kill Balder. For this, he helped him with a mistletoe spear to aim at a particular purpose. Hodi was unaware that his twin brother Balder was that he was fatally struck. After the death of her son declared sacred plant of Frigga the mistletoe, which was to bring love to the world. Anyone who walked under the mistletoe had to drop the weapons and make peace. Later it was the use of kissing under the mistletoe on Christmas.

Creative with mistletoe

* You can view a bunch of mistletoe hanging above a door sill in the house

* You can bundle them together in a white lily on the doorknob hanging

* In a cluster or a Christmas wreath with a beautiful Scottish ribbon around the front door

* Mistletoe weave with white balls with holly with red dots to a small wreath. Put a candle here. A beautiful table decorations.

* A sprig of mistletoe hanging upside down from a tree together with a candle in a glass jar for a romantic touch in the garden.

* Take a wooden box with compartments. Fill each pocket with a bit of a Christmas: little red Christmas balls, silver Christmas balls, sprigs of holly with red berries, sprigs of mistletoe berries to white, etc. Put one night when it's freezing outside. The thin layer of ice adds a magical touch.