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HANDS OFF THE MISTLETOE, BUB. While I was tickled to read Brad Reed's prescription, here on TAP, for a liberal jihad on Christmas, as a gay (well, almost) Wiccan (well, not exactly) ukulele-player (yes, really), I must request exemptions for yuletide and mistletoe. The former refers to the time of year once called "Yule" by the pagan Anglo-Saxons, who celebrated the winter solstice with a ceremonial fire that is also known as the burning of the Yule log. (According to the Heathen Calendar on the Web site, Normannii Thiud & Reik, "The Yule log ideally should be made out of oak, a wood that is sacred to the thunder god Thunor.") Thus, the celebration of Yuletide is inherently anti-Christian. As for mistletoe, it is the magical fauna of the Celtic Druids (also pagans, y'know), who employed it at solstice time for the enhancement of fertility. As Steve Tatler writes:
Because of the colour and juice of its berries mistletoe was regarded as the 'sperm of the gods', containing divine potency and waiting for the moment of conception....When cut down at the Winter Solstice as the sun is reborn, this divine spark of the gods is drawn down to earth symbolizing the moment of conception, although the plant is prevented from actually touching the ground and its sacredness preserved by catching it in a white cloth.Kiss-kiss!
--Adele M. Stan
