Why do we clink glasses before we say 'cheers'? It's such a fundamental part of any gathering, whether it's a wedding, a birthday, a night out with friends, you name it. You just don't think about it. But what if that simple ritual of clinking glasses actually has a rather sinister history?
Remember the Purple Wedding in Game of Thrones? Joffrey takes a sip of the poisoned wine and dies in front of everyone. There's a theory that tapping glasses was a way of avoiding that very scenario altogether. Sounds straight out of Westeros, doesn't it? But how much of that is actually true?
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In the 21st century, tapping glasses is a gesture of friendship and respect. The process is simple, you raise your glasses and tap them and say, "Cheers" before taking the first sip. It's a very simple way to greet the people you're drinking with.
The history of clinking glasses is a bit more complicated, though. This tradition goes back centuries with ancient Greeks and Romans raising their glasses to their gods, emperor and in victory. The actual act of toasting glasses is harder to pin down, and historians aren't entirely sure when or why people started doing it.
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One of the more popular theories takes us right back to medieval Europe, where royal banquets, constant political intrigue, and the very real fear of being poisoned would have made sharing a drink a rather risky proposition. Think about it. If you were invited to dinner by someone who wanted you dead, that glass of wine wouldn't seem very appealing.
According to the theory, you would fill your drinking vessels and bang them together hard enough for a bit of liquid to spill from one into the other. The idea was that if you'd been poisoned, you were likely to get some of the poison in your own cup. By exchanging a bit of wine, you proved that neither of you intended to kill the other. It's an interesting theory, but there's absolutely no historical evidence that this is how clinking glasses started.
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If you've seen Game of Thrones, you'll know that weddings in Westeros weren't necessarily the happiest of events. The Red Wedding was a massacre, and the Purple Wedding saw King Joffrey choke to death after drinking poisoned wine. There was clearly a risk in accepting a wedding invitation in Westeros.
The Purple Wedding makes the poisoning theory absolutely compelling. Picture Joffrey insisting on everyone clinking their glasses before he drank. Would that have saved him? Unlikely. A little wine in the glass wouldn't have been enough to detect or prevent the poisoning. It's still a very amusing comparison, though, and you can't help but wonder whether Tyrion would have found the whole thing ironic in those circumstances.
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The poisoning theory is still unproven, though there is a well-documented history of raising a drink in someone's honor. The Greeks and Romans were big on the ritual of toasting to the gods, the ruler, and to each other. That tradition has continued through the centuries, and we now have the social custom of drinking to someone's health or happiness.
Even "toast" has a rather odd link to alcohol. In earlier days, toasted bread was actually put into wine (partly to improve the flavor of the wine). The phrase eventually came to mean "drinking in someone's honor." As for toasting glasses, their origins are pretty much unknown. It's just part of the drinking ritual now, and "cheers" is the standard way of wishing someone well before a drink.
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The story about toasting glasses being a medieval device to prove you weren't going to poison your enemy is, of course, a very interesting tale. It's exactly the kind of thing Tyrion would have brought up over a meal. The problem is there's no real evidence that this is how it actually started.
Toasting when drinking with someone else is a tradition that has been around for centuries. Be it catching up with an old friend or a grand celebration. The next time someone raises a glass and says, "Cheers", you can shed some knowledge on them with a few interesting facts, and if you ever find yourself attending a wedding in Westeros, maybe summon the banners beforehand.
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