zefrenchpeople

Sometimes, talking to a person who hasn’t been dipped in the same culture as yours can be conflicted and lead to misunderstanding.  That’s the beauty of learning someone else’s culture and traditions.

Last night’s topic was mistletoe.  You usually can find it in any tree where I come from, which is actually not good at all for that tree since it “suffocates” it.

It seems like in the US, you kiss under the mistletoe (du gui) for Christmas and New Year’s.  I only had heard about the later one.  In fact, for New Year’s, if you see people in the street you know, even acquaintance, you have to “faire la bise“ which is a kiss on each cheek and wish “Bonne Année, Bonne Santé” and often Prospérité aka money.  We don’t do hugs really.

So I did some Wikipedia research and I found some interesting details. This is what I found for the Christmas tradition origins:

According to a custom of Christmas cheer, any male and female who meet under a hanging of mistletoe are obliged to kiss. The custom is of Scandinavian origin.^[12] It was the plant of peace in Scandinavian antiquity. If enemies met by chance beneath it in a forest, they laid down their arms and maintained a truce until the next day.” This ancient Scandinavian custom led to the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe.

And this is the explanation for the French one:

During the Middle Ages, people would harvest it and offer wishing « Au gui l’an neuf » (mistletoe to the New Year) later replaced by  « Bon an, mal an, Dieu soit céans » (Good Year, Bad Year, Godbe in your home), modernized in the XX century to “Bonne Année, Bonne Santé” (Have a good year and good health).

That and the “étrennes” is the main tradition for New Year’s in France.

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