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Clinking glasses is a drinking ritual where the participants make contact between their drinking vessels, producing bell-like sounds in order to express congratulations or greetings, Clinking is more likely after a toast that involves a subject of joint interest (like the just-wedded couple).

Symbolism

The origin of the tradition is unknown. One explanation suggests that spilling a neighbor's drink and letting some of it get into one's own glass was a demonstration of the absence of poison. In medieval France, people would clink glasses and then swap them, a variation of this explanation is that clinking indicated declining the suggested swap. Another theory derives the custom from the belief that the sounds of colliding vessels force the evil spirits out of alcohol, similar in function to the beliefs about the church bells in the past (thus suggesting that the ritual started in the Christian era). Warding off the evil spirits is also offered as an explanation for the "clink before you drink" rule.

Yet another rationale for the custom is that when drinking wine, four of the five senses (vision, touch, taste, smell) are already naturally involved. Adding sound for hearing completes the harmony. The clinking can also be considered as a symbol of passing a single cup of wine in the distant past: by bringing the glasses together, the participants are reminded that wine, now poured into separate glasses, used to be shared. The fact that wine in all glasses is the same (unlike, say, pieces of meat) emphasizes the sharing and friendship; clinking can be thought of as an act briefly reuniting the wine to symbolize this meaning.

Acceptance

Acceptance of clinking varies by culture. For example, the habit of clinking glasses is a standard behavior in the Russian culture, rejected in the Japanese one, attitude toward clinking in most European cultures is cautious: clinking glasses is considered to be difficult in large groups and might damage the glasses. As late as 1911, clinking glasses was considered by Englishmen to be a "foreign habit". Etiquette books in English recommend first observing the host (who may want to preserve his crystal and avoid clinking glasses), and then acting the way the host does. In rare cases when clinking is done in a large group, it usually occurs between the neighbors. In any case, the books recommend to clink glasses very carefully.

In Western culture, the wedding guests will often clink their glasses during dinner to ask the newlyweds to stand up and kiss. Some couples pass out wedding favor bells for guests to ring instead of clinking glasses.

Sound

The sound of an individual glass being stricken is a superposition of multiple resonant frequencies. When two similar glasses are clinked, and kept in close proximity, due to their resonant frequencies being close, but not equal, they produce "acoustic beat", a periodic (in time) variation of the sound volume.

According to Margaret Visser, clinking popularity grew up in the 17th century, when individual glasses became common due to the progress made by the Venetian glassmakers of the 16th century. The wine glasses were always valued also for their sound (the "ring"), which was better when large quantity of the lead(II) oxide was present in the glassmaking material (lead crystal), like in the British and Irish wine glasses of the 17th-19th centuries with their "rich bell-notes of F and G sharp".

References

1. ^ Visser 2015, p. 220.
2. ^ Anderson 1984, p. 139.
3. Ushakov 1940.
4. ^ Martin 2014, p. 2163.
5. Bridges & Curtis 2012, p. 18.
6. ^ Boswell 2007, p. 143.
7. ^ Alcofan 2022.
8. Chetwynd 2013, p. 164.
9. McCollister 2004, p. 172.
10. Dickson 2017, pp. 5–6.
11. Dickson 2017, p. 27.
12. Dickson 2017, p. 6.
13. O'Hair & Wiemann 2012, p. 205.
14. Mescheryakov 2003.
15. Kron 1911, p. 21.
16. Bridges & Curtis 2012b, p. 19.
17. Martin 2005, p. 748.
18. Kasper 2024b, p. 42.
19. Kasper 2024, p. 46.

Sources

• Anderson, Charles (1984). "the Exchange". RQ. 24 (2). American Library Association: 139–141. ISSN 0033-7072. JSTOR 25827334. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Boswell, S. (2007). "Clinking Glasses". Protocol Matters: Cultivating Social Graces in Christian Homes and Schools. Canon Press. ISBN 978-1-59128-025-5. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Bridges, J.; Curtis, B. (2012). "The Tradition of the Toast". Toasts & Tributes: A Gentleman's Guide to Personal Correspondence and the Noble Tradition of the Toast. Gentlemanners book. Thomas Nelson. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-4016-0467-7. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Bridges, J.; Curtis, B. (2012b). "A Clink, Not a Crash". Toasts & Tributes: A Gentleman's Guide to Personal Correspondence and the Noble Tradition of the Toast. Gentlemanners book. Thomas Nelson. ISBN 978-1-4016-0467-7. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Chetwynd, J. (2013). The Book of Nice. Workman Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-7611-7690-9. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Dickson, Paul (2017). "A Brief History of Raised Glasses". Toasts: Over 1,500 of the Best Toasts, Sentiments, Blessings, and Graces. Book Sales. pp. 5–24. ISBN 978-0-7858-3569-1. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Kasper, Lutz (2024). "Experiment 16. Cheers! Beat frequencies when clinking glasses". Uncorking the Physics of Wine: A Wine Tasting in 50 Experiments. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Imprint: Springer. pp. 46–48. ISBN 978-3-662-68759-8. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Kasper, Lutz (2024b). "Experiment 15. Frequency of Wine Glasses". Uncorking the Physics of Wine: A Wine Tasting in 50 Experiments. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Imprint: Springer. pp. 42–45. ISBN 978-3-662-68759-8. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Kron, R. (1911). The Little Londoner ... J. Bielefeld. ISBN 978-3-87074-001-6. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
• Martin, Judith (2005). Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-05874-3.
• Martin, Scott C., ed. (2014). "Toast". The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4833-7438-3. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• McCollister, Julia (2004). "Ring Out Them Bells!". Echoes from the Smithsonian: America's History Brought to Life. Sports Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-58261-245-4. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Mescheryakov, A. N. (2003). "Саке" [Sake]. Книга японских символов [Book of Japanese Symbols] (in Russian). Moscow: Natalis. pp. 419–431. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018.
• O'Hair, D.; Wiemann, M. (2012). Real Communication: An Introduction. Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0-312-64420-8. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Ushakov, D. N., ed. (1940). "чокаться" [clink glasses]. Толковый словарь русского языка [Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian). Vol. 4. Moscow: OGIZ.
• Visser, M. (2015). The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-5040-1169-3. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "Традиция чокаться бокалами (рюмками)" [Tradition of Clinking Glasses]. Алкогольные напитки и культура пития. Систематическая энциклопедия от Алкофана [Alcoholic Drinks and Drinking Culture : A Systematic Encyclopedia by Alcofan] (in Russian). LitRes. 2022. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-5-04-096130-6. Retrieved 2024-11-16.

• Drinking culture