As a tree branch parasite mistletoe is, technically, rootless. But it has other roots, historical roots, from traditions. Those are mostly considered pagan in origin, as indeed is any midwinter celebration of the return of lighter days, using evergreen plants. Fir trees, holly, ivy, yew, mistletoe – all are used as symbols of ongoing life through the winter. The Christian celebration of Christmas coincides, not necessarily by chance, with this older tradition and it utilises […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Mistletoe , Religion , social history , Trade
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Du Maurier, Jamaica Inn, and mistletoe
Whilst reading Jamaica Inn, Daphne Du Maurier’s tale of smugglers on Cornwall’s Bodmin Moor, recently I was interested to find two references to mistletoe at Christmas, seemingly suggesting that its usage was commonplace at the time and place the novel is set. That time was not precisely stated by Du Maurier but was, according to her opening note about the 1935 book, ‘over a hundred and twenty years ago’. That would make it before 1815. […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Mistletoe , Mistletoe Day , Religion , social history , Tenbury Wells
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Mistletoe events – Washington DC, Brentor, Devon, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire
It’s mistletoe-theme time again – lots of stuff with ‘mistletoe’ in the title that’s not, really, got a lot to do with mistletoe. All those ‘Mistletoe Markets’ so popular in the US, all those ‘Mistletoe Murders’ in that US TV series I’ve never actually watched. And not forgetting all those mistletoe-themed products – particularly my favourite bugbear, the ‘mistletoe’ scented candles, which smell of, er, pine (as mistletoe doesn’t have a scent). And all that […]
auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , music , social history , Tenbury Wells
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Mistletoe Songs #1
Following the recent media nonsense speculating that mistletoe traditions are on the wane, I thought about documenting various evidence to the contrary – not least the constant presence of mistletoe in book titles (lots of mistletoe-themed murder mysteries (!) and romances, in equal measure) , TV and film titles/themes (romance again, and, bizarrely, murder mysteries again) and in seasonal songs (romance only, I’ve not spotted any mistletoe murder songs yet). The whole gamut of that […]
auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , MistleGO , Mistletoe , social history , surveying mistletoe , Tenbury Wells
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Loadsa mistletoe sales
Yesterday I looked up how many people were selling mistletoe in the UK via Facebook Marketplace – and found that there were dozens and dozens of them. Some selling just a small amount, others with a production line of bundles tied with ribbon and a few advertising whole treefuls of mistletoe to anyone willing to come and gather it. The screen shots above and below show just a small sample. I was a little astonished. […]
auctions , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Mistletoe , Mistletoe Day , Orchard , Religion , social history , Tenbury Wells
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Mistletoe in Parliament
A recent query (in connection with this) about how we got Parliament’s approval for National Mistletoe Day in 2005, and a subsequent search for the relevant references, got me looking at mistletoe in parliament in general. Does it get mentioned often? And in what sort of context? The answer to ‘how often’ is ‘not very’. But the answer to type of context is ‘very variable’ as a search through Hansard, Parliament’s formal record (and allied […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Mistletoe , Religion , Science , social history , toxicity
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Locating Lindow Man
Whilst in Cheshire last weekend, on non-mistletoe business in Wilmslow, we took the opportunity to visit Lindow Moss, the peatbog where the bog body known as Lindow Man (and also, sometimes, as plain Pete Marsh) was discovered in 1984. The discovery of some mistletoe material in his gut, and some of the over-fanciful interpretations of that, has been discussed by me in the diary before – see 2009 and 2011 – and I thought it […]
auctions , berries , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistle Thrush , Mistletoe , Orchard , Science , social history , Tenbury Wells
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The ‘return’ of the kissing tradition (says the BBC)
A fairly thorough mistletoe feature on prime time TV this week – 4 minutes of it on The One Show on BBC One on 8th December. Richie Anderson, the voice of travel news on BBC R2, but more notorious this year as a flamboyant Strictly Come Dancing contestant, spent a day in north Worcestershire visiting the mistletoe-laden apple orchards at Commonwood Farm and the wholesale mistletoe auctions in Tenbury Wells. The final edit must have […]
Blogroll , Current Affairs , medicine , Science , toxicity
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Mistletoe and Markov
How poisonous is mistletoe? Every Christmas season this question is asked, and every season the accurate answer (most media doesn’t worry about that) is, “it depends…” It depends on which mistletoe you mean. In Britain and Europe the mistletoe used at Christmas is Viscum album which certainly contains some toxins – of which more in a moment. In the US the mistletoe used at Christmas will be a species of Phoradendron, which also contains some […]
auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistletoe , social history , Tenbury Wells
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Badgers trading mistletoe in the 1860s
Tenbury Wells may have the only specialist mistletoe market in Britain today but there were many others in the past. Almost every market town in the mistletoe-rich parts of Worcestershire and Herefordshire played a role at one time, particularly from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The Victorian passion for the kissing custom combined with the new easy transport by railways led to a huge trade. To get a feel for the trade at that time it […]