Prepare to pucker up for a kiss as mistletoe goes under the hammer

Описание: (1 Dec 2014) LEADIN:
Nowadays it's a big excuse for a Christmas kiss, but mistletoe was once seen as a symbol of fertility by the Druids in ancient Britain.
The traditional mistletoe and holly auction is getting underway, and offers florists a chance to snap up the festive berries.
STORYLINE:
It's time to pucker up for a kiss because preparations to hang the mistletoe are underway.
These bunches of the white berry are going under the hammer at the annual mistletoe auction in Tenbury Wells, in Worcestershire.
The tradition of selling mistletoe in this small town, 130 miles northwest of London dates back centuries.
Held on the borders of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, the auction sets the prices for farmers and florists alike from across the country.
Auctioneer Nick Champion is busy selling off over 800 lots of mistletoe, holly and Christmas trees.
He's been involved with the event for over four decades now.
"The first of the annual sales of holly and mistletoe, we have three each season. And it's been going in Tenbury since the turn of the nineteenth century, for a very long time indeed," says Champion.
"I've been involved since 1977, auctioning it, and it's a great festive thing and we have buyers coming from all over the country to come and visit it."
Kissing under the mistletoe is thought to have been an ancient fertility tradition.
It was re-invented in the18th century by the Victorians for Christmas time.
The modern English word "mistletoe" is a derivation of the Saxon word "mistl-tan," meaning "different twig."
Since the Victorians rehabilitated the 'pagan' plant, it has long been associated with Christmas and kissing.
"It's a fertility symbol supposedly from the time of the druids," says Champion.
"You used to have to cut a mistletoe out of an oak tree apparently and each berry was a sign of fertility."
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that feeds off other crops, and it thrives on apple and fruit trees.
And the auction couldn't be held at a better place.
It is at a meeting point for the fruit producing counties of Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire and Herefordshire.
"In Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and down into Somerset as well, a lot of apple trees, a lot of cider fruit, a lot of desert fruit and it's a very good host of mistletoe," says Champion.
And that's good news for growers and gatherers hoping to get rid of the parasitic plant harvested from their trees.
After the autumn's apple crop, mistletoe is more abundant.
That means apple farmers can earn some extra money just before the festive season.
Most budding buyers here are either florists or gardeners, hoping to pick up enough holly and mistletoe to create their own festive decorations.
"We're lucky in this part of the world having apple orchards it grows here and so it's reasonably commonplace," says Philip Gorringe, director of the Great British Florist, a flower design and delivery company.
"But there are other areas of the country where it's very difficult to get hold of it and so from that point of view it's a traditional part of Christmas and here in Herefordshire we can grow it, so good news."
Mistletoe was regarded by the ancients as having supernatural powers, sometimes good and sometimes evil.
Two thousand years ago, mistletoe was known by some as a beneficial medicinal herb.
In Scandinavian mythology, however, mistletoe was responsible for the destruction of the sun god, Baldur the Beautiful.
Mistletoe is only a small wisp of a plant, so why would the ancients credit it with such awesome powers as healing or overpowering the gods?

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