Regency Customs: Mistletoe

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Misletoe When Rosemary and Bays the poet's crown Are bawled in frequent cries through all the town Then judge the festival of Christmas near Christmas the joyous period of the year Now with bright Holly all the temples strew With Laurel green and sacred MISLETOE GAY'S TRIVIA THE custom of decking our churches and habitations with evergreens has existed from the very establishment of Christi anity and was unquestionably derived from the like similar practice of our Pagan ancestors Trimming of the temples says Polydore Virgil with hangyngs floures boughes and garlondes was taken of the Heathen people whiche decked their idols and houses with such array The Celts and Goths were alike distinguished for the respectful veneration which they entertained for the MISLETOE and for the solemn rites with which they gathered it about that period of the year when the sun approached the winter solstice We find also from Virgil's comparison of the golden Bough in Infernis to the Misletoe that the use of this plant was not unknown in the religious ceremonies of the Greeks of whose poets he was the acknowledged imitator The Druids were particularly famed for the distinguished regard which they paid to the Misletoe of the Oak they attri buted to it numerous virtues and are stated to have wrought wonderful cures by its means it was conceived to be a sure remedy for sterility in women an antidote to poison and a cure for epilepsy At certain seasons of the year especially at Yule tide or Christmas they were accustomed to gather it with great solemnity and the sacrifice of two milk white bullocks that had never been yoked nor till then had their horns bound up It was cut from the tree with a golden bill or pruning knife by a priest habited in a white vestment and was received into a white woollen cloth many orations were then made over it and the ceremony being deemed complete the sacred plant was preserved for use with religious care Dr Stukeley Med Hist of Carausius speaking of the great Druidical festival observed at the winter solstice or Yule tide says that the Druids carried Misletoe which they called All heal in their hands and laid it on their altars as an emblem of the salutiferous advent of Messiah This cus tom he continues is still preserved in the north and was lately at York on the eve of Christmas day they carry Misletoe to the high altar of the cathedral and proclaim a public and universal liberty pardon and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people at the gates of the city towards the four quarters of Heaven In the solemn procession which the Druids made when about to cut the Misletoe they were accustomed to invite as Borlase terms it all the world to assist at the ceremony with words importing The New Year is at hand gather the Misletoe A remnant of this practice was lately to be met with in some parts of France where at New Year's tide the young villagers went round to the different inhabitants and at their doors wished them good fortune with the cry Au guy l an neuf or To the Misletoe this New Year gue or guy being a Celtic name for the oak and by courtesy for its parasitical intruder the Misletoe The above sentence has been strangely corrupted and having been formed into one word by a rapid pronunciation is said by Menage Dict tom i to have been changed to Aguinaldo in Spain to Aguilanneu in Touraine to Hoguinanno in Lower Normandy where the poor employ it in asking alms on the last day of the year In other parts of France where it is used to a somewhat similar purpose that is requesting a gift it has merged into Aguila neuf as appears from Douce's Illustrations of Shakespear in which the following lines are given on the authority of M Oli vier as being used by the common people on New Year's Day Aguilaneuf de céans On le vois a sa fenêtre Avec son petit bonnet blanc Il dit qu il sera le Maitre Mettera le pot au feu Donnez nous ma bonne Dame Donnez nous Aguilaneuf The Druids had an extraordinary veneration for the num ber three and on this principle says Vallancey in his Gram mar of the Irish Language it was that the Misletoe was held so sacred by them since not only its berries but its leaves also grow in clusters of three united on one stock The inhabitants of Elgin and the shire of Moray in Scotland according to the account written by the Rev Mr Shaw are accustomed at the full moon in March to cut withes of the Misletoe or Ivy and making circles of them to keep them all the year pretending therewith to cure hectics and other troubles Sir John Colbatch in his Dissertation concerning Misle toe remarks that this beautiful plant must have been de signed by the Almighty for further and more noble purposes than barely to feed thrushes or to be hung up superstitiously in houses to drive away evil spirits Under this persuasion and from a consideration of its properties he strongly recom mends it as a medicine very likely to subdue not only the epi lepsy but all other convulsive disorders he also attempts to prove that though the Druids had particular reasons for pre ferring the Misletoe of the Oak yet that that of the crab apple the lime the pear or any other tree is of equal virtue The vulgar notions are that the Misletoe of the oak which is very rare is a cure for wind ruptures in children whilst that of the apple is good for fits The late Rev Mr Brand in allusion to Gay's mention of the Misletoe among those evergreens that were accustomed to be put up in churches observes that after many inquiries it is his opinion it never entered those sacred edifices but by mistake or ignorance of the sextons This opinion however is incorrect we have already on Dr Stukeley's authority stated its public admission into York cathedral and we learn that it is still suffered to be put up without scruple by the incumbent in many of our churches at Christmas where it remains with the other evergreens till Candlemas day Coles speaking of this plant in his Art of Simpling which was published at London in 1656 says it is carried many miles to set up in houses about Christmas time when it is adorned with a white glistering berry As the ivy is dedicated to Bacchus so should the Misletoe be to Love not however to the chaste Eros but to the spor tive Cupid The sacred regard given to it in pagan and Druidical rites has long been terminated but it is still beheld with emotions of pleasurable interest when hung up in our kitchens at Christmas it gives licence to seize the soft kiss from the ruby lips of whatever female can be enticed or caught beneath So custom authorizes and it enjoins also that one of the berries of the Misletoe be plucked off after every salute Though coy in appearance the chariest maid at this season of festivity is seldom loth to submit to the es tablished usage especially when the swain who tempts her is one whom she approves The annexed verses purport to be the Christmas ditty of some country villager their simplicity may be considered as a proof of their age The Misletoe hangs from an oaken beam The Ivy creeps up the outer wall The Bays our broken casements screen The Holly bush graces the hall Then hey for our Christmas revelling For all its pastimes pleasures bring The Misletoe's berries are fair and white The Ivy's of gloomy sable hue Red as blood the Laurel's affect our sight And the Holly's the same with prickles too Then hey & c Nor black nor ensanguined red for me The Misletoe only is my delight For pure as love all its berries be And to kissing my Fanny's sweet lips invite Then hey for our Christmas revelling For thus its symbols pleasures bring Popular pastimes, being a selection of picturesque representations of the customs & amusements of Great Britain, in ancient and modern times (1816).

The practice of mistletoe kisses was not a Regency custom strictly speaking, although it was presented in the collection of customs published in the Regency era along with this delightful contemporary scene of a stolen kiss.  I thought readers would appreciate reading about this custom from the perspective of the Regency contemporary.

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