Etiquette and Origins of Toasting

Many and various were the quaint customs associated with the toasts of those days. For example, in certain companies of military officers etiquette demanded that the cup should be passed from hand to hand.

How Toasts Originated

The custom of drinking the health of the most popular man at the table has its foundation in the ancient practice originated by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans of drinking to the gods and the dead, observes an exchange. 

The Greeks and Romans later began the practice of drinking to each other, and from this arose the custom of toasting living men. But health drinking in its modern form, originating in England in the roistering days of Charles II, begins with the custom of drinking to the ladies or to any woman who happened to be the reigning belle of the Court. 

Many and various were the quaint customs associated with the toasts of those days. For example, in certain companies of military officers etiquette demanded that the cup should be passed from hand to hand. In many midnight gatherings of Alsatia, gallants stabbed themselves in order to drink with their blood the health of the woman on whom their hearts were set. —Kansas City Journal, 1918

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia