PUCKER UP WEARING BALLET PUMPS ON INTERNATIONAL KISSING DAY
Valentines Day isn’t the only holiday all about romance. Did you know that July 6th is International Kissing Day? This special day dedicated to puckering up started off in the UK. But a host of other countries soon adopted it, calling it National Kissing Day or even just plain old Kissing Day. It’s not surprising that this celebration of joining lips has taken off across the globe. Human beings have probably been making out since before we moved into caves and learnt how to make fire. How did it all start?
Kiss-story
Finding out the true history of when, why and how we first started caressing with our lips isn’t so simple. As you can imagine, human beings didn’t start to write anything down until centuries after we existed. So, there are various theories about why we kiss.
One school of thought explains that kissing actually evolved from sniffing. That’s because smell was the most important of our five senses for human relationships in our early history. Back in those days, you could tell a lot about another person by their scent, such as their mood, their health and their social status. The sociologists that believe kissing starting off as sniffing say people used to smell each other’s faces because that’s where our scent glands are located. They would brush the nose across the face and over time the brush of the face became a brush of the lips. And voila! You have the eventual birth of the kiss – whether as a social greeting or more romantic.
Another explanation for smooching is that it comes from when mothers used to chew on food before passing it with their mouths to their babies – known as kiss-feeding. There’s a problem with concluding that kiss-feeding is where it all started. Some indigenous cultures still practice passing food like this, mouth-to-mouth, but sometimes there’s no romantic kissing at all practiced by these same people.
What’s in a kiss?
The first time romantic kissing is mentioned in literature is in an epic poem from India called the Mahabharata. It’s believed to have been written at around 1000 BCE and contains the first recognisable descriptions of kissing for love. Some anthropologists have suggested that the Greeks learned about erotic kissing from the Indians when Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 BCE.
But kissing wasn’t only about affairs of the heart. In ancient Greece, kissing was a way to communicate status, rank, and loyalty among men in a military or court setting. In Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, which dates back to the 9th century BCE, King Priam memorably kisses Achilles’ hand to plead for the return of his son Hector’s dead body. Homer’s other poem, The Odyssey, also features another reason. When Odysseus finally makes it home, his slave kisses him in supplication – that is, the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.
Stop smooching!
Under the Romans, kissing became more widespread. The Romans kissed their partners or lovers, family and friends, and rulers. They had different names for a kiss on the hand or cheek (an osculum), a kiss on the lips (a basium) and a deep or passionate kiss (a savolium).
But with Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire, the tender habit almost disappeared. The biggest kissing killjoys of all were the early Christians. Kissing is prominently mentioned nine times in the Bible, but only once, in Romans, does it refer to a romantic kiss. There are kisses of treachery (the Judas kiss), kisses of greeting, kisses of subjection and the kiss of life (in Genesis).
Making out in modern times
The world record for the longest kiss goes to Thai couple Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat. They locked lips for a whopping 58 hours, 35 minutes, and 58 seconds between 12-14 February, 2013. They, along with eight other couples made the marathon attempt at a Ripley’s Believe it or Not event in Pattaya, Thailand. The Tiranarats actually broke their own previous world record for longest kiss. The Guinness Book of World Records title holders won a cash prize and two diamond rings.
The ‘Butterfly Kiss’
This holiday is especially dear to our hearts here at Butterfly Twists. Apart from being all about the romance (we’re a soppy team), ever heard of the “butterfly kiss”? It’s “…a very sweet and tender kiss that can express passion, love, and affection”. So, not only does this wonderful smooch share the “butterfly” connection with us, its description also captures everything our shoes and ballet pumps aim to represent. So, what better way to celebrate this July 6th, than to embrace and lock lips while decked out in one of our stylish summer shoes? Who says high heels are the height of fashion? Being comfortable in ballet flats or sandals can be just as sexy – even if you have to tip toe to reach your loved one!
So, what better way to celebrate this July 6th, than to embrace and lock lips while decked out in one of our stylish summer shoes? Who says high heels are the height of fashion? Being comfortable in ballet flats or sandals can be just as sexy – even if you have to tip toe to reach your loved one!
Happy kissing.