MOMENTS IN POT CULTURE: MISTLETOE

Words by Jessica Peace

Way back the Celts and the Greeks thought this white berries looked like semen (!), so branded this dripping twig a sign of fertility.

The snogging was started off by frisky 18th century maids and lackeys, hanging it up in their filthy quarters and catching kisses between orders.

It was the Victorians who cemented the smooching tradition, unfortunately, they hadn’t quit got the sexism memo and the women had to kiss any misogynist pervert waiting for her under a branch.

These shiny balls have been used by Cliff, Carey and Bieber but we like Walter de la Mare’s, ‘Mistletoe’ (1913): ‘...Tired I was; my head would go / Nodding under the mistletoe /... No footsteps came, no voice, but only, / Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely, / Stooped in the still and shadowy air / Lips unseen—and kissed me there.’