In the Dark Ages, it was a common practice for knights to kiss one another before going into battle. The question arises: How dark were the dark ages if knights were going around kissing one another in a foreign land while their hot-to-go maidens were waiting alone back in the castle?

Where did the tradition of kissing on New Year’s come from? Historians date this practice back to the Ancient Romans who would throw a big party every New Year’s Eve called the Festival of Saturnalia where they would kiss and generally debauch one another as much as possible.

The upper class of ancient Egyptian women wore lipstick. The Turin papyrus, a kind of Egyptian Kamasutra, shows a woman painting her lips with a brush. The famous bust of Nefertiti sports some luscious lips, painted a lusty red.

As the holidays approach, many of us look for every opportunity to maneuver ourselves under the mistletoe in the hopes of logging a little extra kissing time before the New Year . But while engaged in this noble pursuit, how often do we ponder where the tradition of locking lips under a sparse little plant hanging at parties actually began?