Friday, December 24, 2010

Quote of the Day (Washington Irving, Publicizing the English Custom of Mistletoeing)


“The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked, the privilege ceases. “—Washington Irving, “Christmas Eve,” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1820), in History, Tales and Sketches (Library of America Edition, 1983)

The above quote is contained in a footnote, preceded by a phrase noted especially by young men worldwide in all the years since: i.e., that the mistletoe is “hung up, to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaids.”

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