Kissing under the Mistletoe Balder, the Apollo of Scandinavian mythology, was killed by a mistletoe
arrow given to the blind Höder, by Loki, the god of mischief and potentate of our earth Balder was
restored to life, but the mistletoe was placed in future under the care of Friga, and was never again to be
an instrument of evil till it touched the earth, the empire of Loki. It is always suspended from ceilings, and
when persons of opposite sexes pass under it, they give each other the kiss of peace and love in the full
assurance that the epiphyte is no longer an instrument of mischief
A correspondent in Notes and Queries suggests that the Romans dedicated the holly to Saturn, whose
festival was in December, and that the early Christians decked their houses with the Saturnian emblems to
deceive the Romans and escape persecution.