This month, we’re celebrating six years of HT Wknd, so let’s say… what shall we say? Let’s take a look.
Because there are a myriad ways to say “cheers”!
The idea of the toast is an ancient one. There are references to it, for instance, in Homer’s Odyssey. Some say the custom began as a gesture of good faith. But that origin story would appear to be a bit of an urban legend. By all indications, toasts were a daily occurrence born of literal good spirits. The equivalent of, say, cheering or clapping at a gig. Different cultures have their own versions. There are the less-sedate ones: some ancient terms call for all those present to simply down the drink in one shot. There are countries where the toast becomes quite elaborate. Take Georgia. Celebratory wine-drinking involves a tamada or toastmaster who officiates, creating the right atmosphere of revelry and ensuring each toast is appropriately delivered and timed. In Russia, meanwhile, the respect for alcohol takes slightly different shape. Pososhok is literally walking stick. That’s about as true as it sounds (which is not at all). Skol is really the world for a large drinking vessel. And that gives this salutation a far more evocative tone. The terms comes from the fact that Scandinavians, when they drank in large groups, often drank out of a single large bowl, as a way of reflecting a sense of community. What about English? Some brews were so bitter, back then, that a popular snack a bit like desiccated French toast was dropped into the glass to soak up sediment and soften the harsh flavours. The views expressed are personal)
This region in the Caucasus mountains has one of the world’s oldest wine-producing traditions, believed to go as far back as 8,000 years.
Drinking from the same flagon, swapping glassing, and exchanging embraces or kisses on the cheek while taking a sip, were ways to say: “We trust that no one here has spiked this with something lethal”. There are the sedate traditions, which are often variants of “to your health” (santé in French; salud in Spanish; salute in Italian) or “to life and honour” (“l’chaim” is Hebrew for “to life”; “serefe” is Turkish for “to honour”). These include “kanpai” in Japanese and “ganbei” in Chinese, both of which mean “bottoms up” (literally, “dry glasses”). Here, there are said to be about 150 “basic” toasts, crafted for different occasions. These often proceed according to themes picked for the event: peace, ancestors, friendship, love. Here, guests end the evening with a final drink and the phrase “na pososhok” or “one for the road”, which doubles as a wish for everyone to have a safe journey home. So the toast means a whole lot of things: “May this drink support you on your cold journey home”; “may your carriage meet with no misadventures”; and perhaps, “may your carriage rider be as sober as you are not! In Scandinavia, the term for “cheers” is “skol”, and urban legend would have us believe this is because Norwegians, Swedes and Danes, in their Viking days, ended a day of marauding, looting and killing by drinking out of the dried-out skulls of the vanquished. The term “toast” has a tale with roots in Ancient Rome. “Tostus”, or “dried up”, is simply what they called the bread. (Adam Jacot de Boinod is the author of The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World.
