Tokens like chocolate and flowers have come to be associated with Valentine's Day, but kissing is one of the oldest forms of expressing love and respect, says Texas A&M anthropologist Vaughn Bryant.
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"We accept kissing as one of many niceties of our culture. We practice it, enjoy it, write about it, associate it with love and happiness and most believe that kissing is universal," he said.
History books give no clear indication of how kissing actually started; however, based on extensive historical and cultural research, Bryant has developed a few ideas about its origin.
References to kissing did not appear until 1500 B.C. when historians found four major texts in the Vedic Sanskrit literature of India that suggested an early form of kissing.
"There are references to the custom of rubbing and pressing noses together. This practice, it is recorded, was a sign of affection, especially between lovers," Bryant said. "This is not kissing as we know it today, but we believe it may have been its earliest beginning."
About 500 to 1,000 years later, the epic Mahabharata, contained references suggesting that affection between people was expressed by lip kissing. Later, the Kama Sutra, a classic text on erotica, contained many examples of erotic kissing and kissing techniques.
With their conquering armies, the Greeks helped spread kissing throughout Europe and Asia around 326 B.C. Bryant says, though, that the Romans should be credited for popularizing kissing. They had several forms of kissing including the osculum, which was a kiss of friendship often delivered as a peck on the cheek as a form of affection, not passion. This was such a popular form of kissing that members of the Roman senate often exchanged this sign of affection at the opening of each session. Non-senators would kiss a senator's toga as a sign of respect for the person and his office.
"Today most Western cultures still use the osculum. In the United States, affectionate kisses are bestowed on the cheeks of close relatives or friends, but our custom dictates that males don't kiss males," Byrant said.
However, the Romans had other forms of kissing such as the savium, a kiss of wild passion that became known as the "French kiss." Such acts of affection prompted scholars to admonish kissing and government officials to prohibit it.
"Kissing became so much a part of the Roman culture that laws were passed proclaiming a young woman's right to a man's hand in marriage if he kissed her passionately in public," Bryant said. "When a young couple was ready for marriage, a ceremonial party was held in their honor. At the appropriate time, they would seal their formal engagement with a passionate kiss in view of all those attending.
Centuries later, Christians shifted the kiss and the importance of the engagement to the wedding ceremony. The kiss to seal the eternal bond of love between the man and woman was placed at the end of the wedding ceremony and most cultures continue that practice today.
Christians also adapted other forms of kissing from the Romans, including the osculum, which became the "holy kiss" to signify Christ's affection and blessing to all humankind.
"From the beginning of Christianity, the kiss has been an important ritual carried out by faithful Christians and their clergy. Even today it is commonplace to see some Christians kiss the altar, cross, vestments, Bibles, statues and relics of religious importance," Bryant said.
Even though kisses are exchanged daily as a sign of welcome, friendship and respect, on Valentine's Day kisses will be exchanged as a sign of love.
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