Last Word

Cheers

Toasting has been around for centuries. The

Persians, Egyptians, Saxons, Huns, just about every culture in history has some tradition of observance before drinking. The Ancient Greeks toasted for health and wealth. Toasting was also used as protection from poison; the toast given and then everyone drinking to ensure the drink was safe for consumption.

The origin of the word toasting comes from the Romans, who had adopted the Greek tradition of toasting to each other’s health but would often drop pieces of toasted bread into their cups to reduce the acidity of bitter wine. During Augustus’s reign in Rome, the Roman Senate decreed that all diners must drink to their leader before every meal.

In England, the role of toastmaster became essential to any gathering as toasts became elaborate, unending and could often result in brawls. The toastmaster was a designated person that presided over the gathering, delivering relevant and timely toasts during the event and making sure others had a chance to offer toasts to the table, much like an emcee would do today to keep the party going. The importance of the toastmaster and toasting in England was best described in the book The Royal Toastmaster, from 1791:

“A Toast or Sentiment very frequently excites good humor, and revives languid conversation; often does it, when properly applied, cool the heat of resentment, and blunt the edge of animosity. A well-applied Toast is acknowledged, universally, to soothe the flame of acrimony, when season and reason oft used their efforts to no purpose.”

Some historians believe the clinking of glasses in the toasting ritual was meant to make noise in order to keep demons and evil spirits away and/or to replicate the sound of church bells.

Imbibing after the toast also has significance around the world. In some cultures, to toast but not drink will bring bad luck. Following a toast in Japan, it is customary to constantly refill the glass so that it never goes empty. In Korea, however, the glass should be emptied before the host refills.

Then there is the simple one-word act of friendship and comradery that usually coincides with the first drink of the night—salud, prost, santé, cheers, kanpai, sláinte, pro and kippis, to name just a few.

Temperance movements over the centuries have tried to abolish toasting. The Massachusetts colony in 1634 banned the “abominable custom of drinking to another’s health,” but the act of toasting remains true to its original purpose today.

According to North Carolina’s Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the state’s official toast comes from the poem The Old North State, written by Leonora Monteiro Martin in 1904. In the 1930s, Mary Burke Kerr, a music teacher in Sampson County, composed music for the poem and in 1957 it became the state’s official toast. The poem rather appropriately begins:

Here’s to the land of the longleaf pine, The summer land where the sun doth shine, Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great, Here’s to “Down Home,” the Old North State!

SP