Tenbury Wells’ Mistletoe Festival will return in December with three events celebrating the town’s long connection to the plant.
The festival will take place during the week leading up to December 5, although activities will begin earlier.
The first event, The Mistletoe Heart, will be held during the week beginning November 9. Participants will bless the orchard in a ceremony and “give thanks to the land, honouring the mistletoe”.
After the “heart is in place”, volunteers will collect more mistletoe. It will be made into bunches for the town and sold during the festival.
In the week before December 5, final preparations will be made. Residents are being encouraged to help at the home of S.E.N.S.E at Temeside House, on Teme Street.
Tenbury Wells has been linked with the sale of mistletoe for Christmas for more than 100 years.
Herefordshire and Worcestershire were once involved in the trade, but Tenbury Wells is now the only town in the area to hold mistletoe auctions.
Tenbury English Mistletoe Enterprise, known as TEME, was established in 2004 to protect the town’s historic link to the plant.
The organisation created two initiatives: the Tenbury Wells Mistletoe Festival and online mistletoe marketing. Both were intended to highlight Tenbury Wells’ long history of mistletoe sales.
The Tenbury Mistletoe Association was founded in 2010. The association hopes to “continue their legacy”.
Each year, the festival aims to celebrate the myths, legends and history of the plant and of Tenbury Wells.
Residents wishing to support the preparations can attend the activities at S.E.N.S.E during the week before the festival’s main day.
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