JoAnne Skelly: Why we meet under the mistletoe

Find someone, usually a lover, standing under a parasitic plant and kiss him or her. This doesn’t sound in the least romantic, particularly when you think that in its natural habitat this parasitic plant would be choking off the vascular activity of its host and slowly killing it. Why does standing under the mistletoe invite a kiss? It makes no sense horticulturally. Where did this tradition come from? Before I explore the tradit