Festive Greenery ATCs

 

I don't think I've ever actually kissed anyone under real mistletoe (possibly a plastic version?). It may be a tradition but we've never really had much of it and it's not been a household tradition of ours. Although perhaps, now I have my own house to run, I could start it off next year. I seem to recall a small faux sprig the parents occasionally put up over the stairs when I was little but I don't know what happened to it. 

Do you have mistletoe in your house?

I like the tradition though. Having just researched it there seem to be a couple of different legends associated with it. One is that it originated in ancient Greece as part of the festival of Saturnalia (a Roman pagan festival honouring the agricultural god Saturn) which is in mid-December near the winter solstice. It was also used in marriage ceremonies because of the plant's association with fertility and, during the Roman era, war enemies might reconcile their differences under mistletoe as a representation of peace. 

There's also a legend of Norse god Baldur (God of truth and light) who was slayed by an arrow made from a mistletoe branch. His mother wept tears of white berries which brought Baldur back to life and it was decreed that mistletoe was never to be used as a weapon again and that she would place a kiss on anyone who passed beneath it. 

I don't know if there are any other stories of Mistletoe you know of?

Customarily men can steal a kiss from any girl standing underneath the plant and a refusal of a kiss might lead to bad luck and a lack of a marriage proposal the following year! Of course, once you've kissed someone under it you should remove a berry and once all of the berries have been taken the kissing must stop.

I'm not expecting any kissing in relation to my mistletoe cards though, they are hopefully just pretty to look at and remind of a festive season. 

As usual I have layered up backing fabrics to create a colour background with interesting textures to lightly stitch. You can read all about how the fabrics have been stitched and how I made the mistletoe pieces in my previous post linked here. 

I haven't had any cards through the post recently for this swap but I think there are about three saved in my Stitchscape folder from members who sent theirs in with the November card - very organised of them!! There are a couple more days and then in the New Year I'll see what I've got and double check whether anyone else is wanting to join in as cards might have been delayed in the post due to the strike action, or not posted yet because of the festivities. 

I'm sure I've said it before but I'm really excited to see a whole year's worth of cards and do some follow up blog posts about the collections as a whole. If you have been joining in it would be great to see how your cards look together as a collection as well.