DRINKING CEREMONIES.

Western Star, Issue 930, 14 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

DRINKING CEREMONIES.

The custom of touching glasses prior to drinking healths is very common in England and many other countries, and especially in Germany. It is curious to note how this custom has prevailed, and still exists, even among savage tribes. To drink'out of the same cup and eat out of the same plate, was one of the ways in which the ancients celebrated a marriage, and the wedding feast continues to be not the least important of the marriage ceremonies to the present day. The Indians of Brazil retain a custom of drinking together a little brandy, as a sign that the marriage is concluded. In China similar customs are met with. In the mediaeval banquets of Germany it was the custom to pass a loving cup from hand to hand, but this gradually necessitated that the cup should be of enormous size, and thus smaller cups or glasses were adopted, and the old custom was conformed to by the drinkers touching their glasses before drinking. The ceremony attending the passing and drinking out of the “loving cup,” as practised at our great city festivals and at some of our college halls, is said to have arisen from the assassination of King Edward. It was then the custom among the Anglo-Saxons to pass round a large cup, from which each guest drank in turn; he who thus drank stood up, and as he lifted the cup with both hands, his body was exposed without any defence to a blow, and the occasion was often seized by an enemy to murder him. To prevent this the following plan was adopted :—When one of the company stood up to drink, he required the companion who sat next him to be his pledge—that is, to be responsible for protecting him against anybody who should attempt to take advantage of his defenceless position; this companion stood up also, and raised his drawn sword in his hand to defend the drinker while drinking. This practice, in a somewhat altered form, continued long after the condition of society had ceased to require it, and it was the origin of the modern practice of pledging in drinking. In drinking from the “loving cup” as now practised, each person rises and takes the cup in his hand to drink, and at the same time the person seated next him rises also, and when the latter takes the cup in his turn, the individual next to him does the same.