Whats the origin of kissing under the mistletoe?
Supposedly the practice comes from a myth about Balder, Viking god of the summer sun. To paraphrase: Balder has a dream where he dies and this frightened Frigga (what an unfortunate translation, eh?), who was his mom and also the goddess of love and beauty because she thought if her son dies, so would everything on earth. She begged the elements and all the living things on earth to spare her son. Happy with their response, she assured Balder that he would live. But Balder had an enemy, Loki, the god of evil (what else) and Loki found the one plant that didn’t grow in or under the ground — the mistletoe which is an aerial parasite that grows from materials deposited in the tree by bird droppings), made a poison arrow from it and killed Bader Frigga, the mother, struggled for three days to save her son and eventually succeeded. In her happiness, she annulled mistletoe’s reputation as a poison and kissed everyone that passed beneath the mistletoe in the tree. With her kiss, no harm woul
