The season of kissing is upon us with all its lovey-dovey madness. It comes around every year and leaves some satisfied and others weeping under their pillows wishing they had just taken a chance. After all the boys shave off their premature whiskers from the traditional no-shave-November, kissing obsesses the adolescent mind during winter break.
“It is cold this time of year and one kissing another makes heat that generates throughout the body,” senior Hannah Field said. “When you kiss it sends off the same endorphins as when you eat chocolate and I love chocolate.”
It makes sense that the average teenager would feel the need to participate in all this spit swapping considering all the attention it gets around the media. All those holiday flavored Hershey Kisses and those alluring jewelry commercials start getting into their innocent, unadulterated minds after the slightest bit of exposure.
“A kiss can lift someone up,” senior Lexi Seay said. “It’s like a little act of love and it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It is kinda like getting a warm hug from Olaf, but on the lips.”
To put things in perspective, this time of year wasn’t always as dominated by kissing. On the first Christmas, there was maybe a peck on the newborn babe, but it was an otherwise holy and divine night. The hysteria grew, quite literally, from the effects of one very powerful parasitic plant, the mistletoe.
“I believe the mistletoe tradition originated from the Amazon people,” senior Mac Metzler said. “They had so many trees and bushes and there were mistletoes everywhere. They were basically kissing all the time. That’s how it started.”
Although some may believe it came from the Amazon, Celtic Druids introduced the use of the mistletoe to the world when they boldly chose to hang it from their doorways, warding off the evils of thunder from their home. Since then, it has also been placed in baby cradles to shield the child from goblins, given to the first calf born after the new year, to bring protection to the herd, and even hung with the belief that it could extinguish fires. Despite how believable those traditions are, they died out eventually and transformed into the mushy holiday tradition we have today, kissing under the mistletoe.
“I believe that kissing under the mistletoe brings a certain kind of mystic power to you,” sophomore Callie Holden said. “It brings a sense of protection to you. It protects you from all other girls because they are all so jealous.”
The mistletoe is a perfect excuse to sneak a smoocher when that special someone doesn’t realize where they’re standing. It is also conveniently portable so that if the first target doesn’t work out as planned, you can always settle for your plan B.
“I have never actually used a mistletoe before to kiss anybody,” sophomore Matthew Almy said. “But the perfect kiss that I can imagine having around this time of year would be just two love-birds, snuggled up together beside a warm fire. That’s the perfect kiss to me.”
When the mistletoe season comes to an end, there is still the chance to earn that coveted holiday kiss. The New Year’s kiss. A good way to end one year and begin the next. The real question is: Who is that person going to be? Who are you going to rely on to bring you luck for the next 365 days?
“Am I worried about kissing anyone this New Years?” sophomore Tyler Scott said. “No, no! I mean I’ve got my mom. I’ve got my bro. I’ve got my dad. My dog likes to lick me all the time. I’m fine.”
The truth is, the person you choose has no bearing on how well your year is going to go. That is what the New Year’s resolution is for, and if you don’t stick to that then you are truly in the hole my friend. Either way, humans have been participating in the New Year’s kiss ever since the Romans began the tradition all the way back in ancient times. They would throw a huge party called the Festival of Saturnalia that was all centered around kissing and immoral self-indulgence. Those naughty Romans had something good though, because the tradition caught on and was popularized by the Germans until it became a customary thing for us Americans to do today.
“This stuff makes me feel like a little schoolboy again,” Almy said. “I’ve kissed a lot of girls in my time. I’d probably consider myself the best kisser of all time, but the importance of one’s kiss is to open the man up and really just show him what’s happening. If the perfect kiss doesn’t come this year, don’t worry because it will come. It will come.”
