Here in the Paris airport there appears to be an epidemic of public kissing. People are going gaga. So I thought I’d check out some FAQs on the practice of the kiss. The following comes from here.
HOW TO HANDLE YOUR FIRST KISS: You can always bluff your way through a first kiss! They’ll never know it’s a first, unless you tell ’em.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU BANG TEETH: Laugh it off. Tell your partner you’re so very keen to kiss him or her that you’re getting dizzy just standing so close.
HOW TO KISS PASSIONATELY: The secret to great kissing is variety. Press your nose into your partner’s cheek and hug ’em to you, like the Eskimos.
AND did you know that Japanese society, before the 20th century, was “ignorant of the kiss except as applied by a mother to her infant,” Kissing was common among the Greeks and Romans as when parents kissed their children, or when lovers and married persons kissed. The kiss in Western societies was also used in various religious and ceremonial acts, as where the kiss had a sacramental value.
“. . . although kissing was prevalent in some form since primitive times, it “received its chief development in Western culture.”
Chalk up another one for the West.
