A very common Christmas tradition to give or receive a cheeky kiss under a green partial parasite called mistletoe – in Czech „jmelí“. Yeah, did you know it is a semi-parasite? It attacks trees and gets its water and nutrients from them. It, of course, affects the trees negatively. But everyone loves it at Christmas, right? But why do we kiss under it? Listen and you will know!

Hi and Welcome to the advent edition of my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. In this edition, I bring you a new short Christmas-themed episode every day of December until Christmas. If you want to read the transcript of this episode, click the link in the description!

 Today, we will answer the question of why we kiss under a mistletoe.

The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe started in ancient Greece because the plant was associated with fertility. Fertility is the ability to have children. Also, the conflicts were settled under the mistletoe as it represented peace.

In Victorian England, which is the period between 1820 to 1914, kissing under the mistletoe was very serious! If A girl refused a kiss, she shouldn’t expect any marriage proposals for at least a year.

But today it is a light-hearted tradition that is known all over the world.

And what about you, do you kiss under the mistletoe?

Now you know why.

Source: 

Norton, Lily. „Pucker up! Why Do People Kiss under the Mistletoe?“ LiveScience, Purch, 27 Sept. 2022, www.livescience.com/32901-why-we-kiss-under-mistletoe.html.