(editor's note: The Times-Standard didn't update their Opinion section in the Online version 12/28. So here it is.)
Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 12/28/2008 01:31:06 AM PST
Have you ever been to a New Year's party where, at the stroke of midnight, everyone started kissing? Who hasn't? It's an old tradition and also a superstition.
In Biblical times the act of kissing or touching ones lips to those of another, or to another person's cheek was a token of affection or respect.
Kissing was common not only between male and female relatives (Genesis 29:11; 31:28), but also between male relatives. (Genesis 27:26, 27; 45:15; Exodus 18:7; 2 Samuel 14:33) It was likewise a gesture of affection between close friends. (1 Samuel 20:41, 42; 2 Samuel 19:39) Kissing might accompany a blessing. (Genesis 31:55)
Historians credit the Romans (are we surprised?) with starting the tradition of kissing and merrymaking on New Year's Eve. They called it the Festival of Saturnalia. Later on, the English and the Germans would celebrate the coming of the new year by kissing the first person they met when the bells chimed twelve.
Europeans have celebrated with masked balls on New Year's Eve for hundreds of years. Tradition says the mask symbolizes evil spirits from the old year and the kiss (after taking off the mask) is an act of purification.
I've always viewed this superstition/tradition with anticipation. What better way to start the new year than with a kiss? Beats a kick, as they say. My first kiss of the year, for the past 34 years, has been for my wife, Shirley.
Before marriage, I went to some pretty odd New Years Eve parties. The saddest one was in 1970, just days before I left for Vietnam. A lot of people kissed me that night, probably thinking they wouldn't see me again.
My buddy and I threw a New Year's Eve costume party three years later, when I was a civilian again, and someone showed up in a frog costume. I think (this was long time ago and it was a good party) he went around telling the women he was really a handsome prince and a kiss would release him from his warty exterior.
To kiss the one dearest to us, at any time, is sublime. On New Year's Eve, it takes on meaning from that last moment of the old year, and gives the promise of a good year ahead. It says you both believe the best is yet to come.
Because Jan. 1st is the first day of the year, people have historically connected what they do on that day with their fate throughout the rest of the year.
Don't attend a New Years party without a date, if you don't want to end up watching everyone else pucker up. Then again, booze doesn't disinfect mouths, and in a room full of strangers you're probably better off kissing the dog when the clock strikes twelve.
If you find yourself at a New Year's party where you have no wish to kiss anyone in the room, there are tactics to it. For example, have something physical in, or over, your mouth. An inhaler, toothpick, or even a surgical mask, will do the job.
Another ploy worth considering is to excuse yourself a few minutes before midnight to take a “head-clearing” walk. You can return after the kissing has stopped. Sometimes retreat is the better part of valor.
This kissing thing at New Year's can be serious stuff. Michael Christian, who wrote “The Art of Kissing” under the pen name William Cane, said the zeal of New Year's Eve can lead to mixed messages and lingering awkwardness. In other words, be careful how you kiss your neighbor's wife when she wanders under the mistletoe.
A recent survey for an American mouthwash manufacturer found that 6 percent of people greeting the New Year at midnight plan to kiss their pets. I find it odd that this statistic isn't higher. There's a lot of animal lovers out there.
I plan to greet the New Year by kissing my wife first, and then my pug. After all, there is a pecking order in our house.
As It Stands, I'd like to wish all my readers a safe and Happy New Year!
Image from http://www.allposters.co.uk
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