Planetary creativity
There are few people on earth who never kiss. But still they are. Eskimos, for example. Since in the Arctic cold during a kiss, you can easily freeze your lips, residents of the northernmost latitudes of the planet, when greeting each other, prefer only to rub their noses. In India, instead of kissing, it is customary to respectfully press your nose against the cheek of another, while taking a deep breath.
The rest of humanity is kissing. And everywhere - on the streets, in parks, the subway, in discos and, of course, in the cinema, a heavenly place for couples in love. Even in East Asia, where greeting kisses are not as widespread as bows, such a custom began to appear in the 20th century. Not so long ago, they began to kiss and on the islands of Polynesia, whose inhabitants for many centuries had no idea of this wonderful action.
The interesting meaning of the kiss, adopted in Russian culture, is recorded by Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl. In addition to the widespread "kissing, kissing as a sign of love, friendship, greetings and respect", a connoisseur of the Russian language also reports that the word was also used as a farewell - in the old days, instead of "goodbye", our ancestors said: "Until the first kiss."
The Slavs kissed on a variety of occasions. Known kisses are Christmas, New Year, Easter, Trinity, love. Ilyinsky kisses blessed close relatives during the July holiday of Ilya the Thunderstorm, and Spassky kisses celebrated the honey, apple and linen Spasy.
The superstitious meaning of a kiss, when it is believed that by touching an object with his lips, a person endows it with magical power or, on the contrary, gains good luck himself, as well as kisses that should occur in a certain place, have been preserved from the ancient rites of the Druids. To kiss the tree on which the sacred mistletoe grows meant to join her mystical power and find happiness.
What are they doing, shameless
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Despite the fact that poets of all countries and peoples surrounded kisses with a romantic haze, it was often forbidden to do so in public places. Of course, neither ears nor lips, as in Ancient Assyria, were cut off to anyone, but public kisses were sometimes fined heavily. In the 19th century, such behavior was prohibited by the highest decree in Russia. And in 1910, kissing was banned at train stations in France, ostensibly to prevent train delays.
Laws prohibiting kissing in public places have been adopted at various times in some states of the USA, Japan, China, South Africa. Rather strict prohibitions concerning public behavior apply even in the homeland of the Kama Sutra - India.
It is forbidden to kiss in public in the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia and other Muslim countries. For a kiss on the street or in a cafe there is a huge fine.
Similar attempts were made in Moscow. Several years ago, the Moscow Department of Education appealed to the Moscow City Duma with a bill banning kissing and hugging in public places. For manifestations of violent feelings, for example, in the back seat of a tram, at a lecture in a student auditorium or on a park bench, violators were proposed to be punished with a fine of 300 to 500 rubles. I must say that this bill did not even reach the first reading.
Elderly Muscovites sometimes turn to the police with complaints that some couples in love express their feelings in public too violently, but it is impossible to subject kissing “violators” to administrative punishment - there is no legal basis. However, on a park bench you can often see pensioners kissing.