Christmas is one of our favorite holidays of the year. According to Christmas lore, the weather on Christmas foretells the weather for the coming year. If windy on Christmas, trees will bring much fruit; if there is ice on trees on Christmas day, there will be clover tall enough to cut by Easter. Then, do you know about mistletoe? How about the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe and how that came about? Why don’t you fill in the blanks given below to complete the fascinating mistletoe folklore?
In an old Norse legend, Frigga, the goddess of 1.______________,
had a son named Balder who was the god of 2. _______________ and light. To
protect him, Frigga demanded that all creatures -and even inanimate objects –
swear an oath not to harm him, but she forgot to include mistletoe. Loki, god
of 3. __________ and destruction, learned of this and made an arrow and guided
it to kill Balder. The death of Balder meant the death of sunlight, which
explains the long winter night in the north.
Frigga’s tears fell onto the mistletoe and turned into white
4. ___________. She decreed that it should never cause harm again but should
promote 5.___________ and peace instead. From then on, anyone standing under
mistletoe by accident had to put their weapons aside and exchange a kiss of peace,
declaring a 6. ______________ for the day.
*One caution!! Raw mistletoe 7. ___________ are very
poisonous and tend to fall off the plant easily. They have been known to cause 8.__________________
and death when ingested and can be especially lethal to children and pets. To
be on the safe side, ask your florist to replace the real 9. _________________
with imitation ones or just use artificial mistletoe in your decoration.
Answer Keys
1. love
2. innocence
3. evil
4. berries
5. love
6. truce
7. berries
8. seizures
9. berries
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