Over the course of time, there have been times when kisses have meant something completely different from what we know today - and who knows, maybe there will come a time when people will return to the days of... fearing a kiss.

Fun fact: Kissing wasn’t originally a form of affection. According to many historians, kissing evolved from smelling, an activity that humans used centuries ago as a way to get to know each other. “People used to sniff,” says Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University.smelland when they touch each other's lips, they find this much more enjoyable.”

For much of early history, smell was more important than any other sense in human relations. People would use it to determine the mood, health, and social status of others. There were many ways to greet people by sniffing. People would touch their noses all over the other person’s face because the face has many scent glands. Gradually, face touching became lip touching, and social greetings evolved from there.

The first recorded act of kissing was in India about 4,000 years ago. The epic Mahabharata has passages describing romantic kisses, including the line: “She put her mouth to mine and made a sound that made me swoon.” But until the 15th century, when Europe had just discovered Africa, India, Asia and the New World, the act of kissing was still strange in many places. And even though the whole of humanity knew what kissing was, not all kisses were a symbol of love. The status, role and meaning of kissing have always changed over time. Kissing was a cultural feature, an art form in ancient Roman society - men kissed men, women kissed women, people kissed anyone they loved and respected - it is no wonder that ancient Romans are called the most kissers in world history. During the Middle Ages in Europe, a rigid code of kissing etiquette was established. Only people of equal social status were allowed to kiss on the lips, and the lowest classes and prisoners were only allowed to kiss the ground closest to the feet.

By the time of 1311-1312, the Christian churches in Europe, especially the Council of Vienna (Austria), had drafted a number of moral laws, which stipulated that if an unmarried couple dared to kiss each other leading to sex, their souls would be damned, but kissing for pleasure alone was a tolerable crime. In Naples (today's Italy) in the 1500s, people who kissed in public were even sentenced to death.

By 1600, public kissing had virtually disappeared. Instead, during the 1800s, bows, curtsies, and hat-tippings became more common, influenced by Shakespearean romanticism. As late as 1900, Americans still denounced public kissing as “a habit that is reprehensible and intolerable in civilized society.”

Then, with the advent of movies, followed by Hollywood and television, the concept of kissing certainly changed. The famous on-screen kisses in films like "Gone with the Wind" (1939) or "Casablanca" (1942) seemed to redefine the beauty of romantic kissing, and lovers all over the world continued to express their love through kissing, as Sam Dooley Wilson sang in "Casablanca": "A kiss is a kiss, desire is desire, the basics will remain the same no matter how much time passes."

In a twist of history, the kiss once represented equality, friendship and class solidarity, originating from the expression of enthusiasm in the workers' movements of the late 19th century. This meaning of the kiss developed and became so popular that it became a cultural symbol, people gave it a name, calledSocialist Brotherly Kiss(Socialist fraternal kiss). In the years following the October Revolution and the Comintern, it became a formal greeting between fellow Communists. At that time, the kiss symbolized the deep closeness that had been forged between Communism and socialism during the isolation of Bolshevik Russia.

Socialist Brotherly KissIt is usually expressed by a hug, combined with three kisses on the cheeks. In rare cases, when the friendship between two people is especially strong, they will kiss on the mouth instead of just the cheek. Many socialist leaders of liberation movements, such as the Palestine Liberation Organization and the African National Congress, also used to greet leaders of Communist countries with a brotherly kiss. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist system in Eastern Europe, this type of kiss gradually disappeared, leaving only the hug.

With the meaning of conveying complete enthusiasm and love, the socialist brotherly kiss has been used a lot in Vietnam, without us realizing it, through... Uncle Ho. In his letters to teenagers and children, Uncle Ho always ended his words with a kiss. Almost every letter was like that. He wrote: "Kiss you!" (Letter to children on the first Mid-Autumn Festival night of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam), "Uncle kisses you!" (To the children of the whole country), "Uncle kisses all of you" (Letter to children of the whole country on the occasion of the August Revolution anniversary), "Uncle kisses you!" (Letter praising Dang Phuc Hai)...

Whether it is a sign of love, affection or friendship, kissing has been illegal in some places for a long time. Kissing was feared because of the spread of terrible diseases like the Spanish flu and the Black Death, which cast a dark shadow over human life.

The Black Death is recorded to have ended in 1353, but its remnants continued to ravage England to the point of exhaustion throughout the 1400s. Therefore, even though he was born nearly 70 years after the pandemic appeared, King Henry VI - the famous "Mad King" of the United Kingdom - still had to shoulder the responsibility of steering the country when the epidemic crisis had not really passed. On July 16, 1439, he issued an edictNo kissingin the hope that this will be a preventive measure to stop the spread of the disease.

Before this period, people had greeted each other with kisses; churchgoers would kiss each other when they met, servants would kiss their masters’ rings, men would kiss men, men would kiss women, and vice versa. The Kissing Ban was enacted, banning everyone in England from kissing, even as a greeting. Although it is now common knowledge that saliva can transmit germs, this was not common knowledge in the Middle Ages, and the kissing ban was probably just a precautionary measure taken when the king realized that the more contact with a sick person, the more likely he was to catch the disease.

Nearly 600 years later, the Spanish flu hit American soil, killing 675,000 Americans and 50 million people worldwide; and back then, lovers did their best toLovewithout infecting each other. There were strategies to make kissing safer. "If you must kiss, kiss through a handkerchief" - a headline in The Sun in New York City on August 17, 1919, "Otherwise you may catch the Spanish flu, or it will infect your significant other - From the Board of Health to lovers".

Another method that was “invented” during this period waskissing curtain. "For a pure and hygienic kiss, use this small net, remembering to wash it with disinfectant before kissing" - this is the line of an advertisement titled "Pure and Disease-Free Kiss" published in Popular Science Monthly magazine in 1918.

In fact, this intimate act was considered dangerous not only for lovers but also for family members. "To avoid infecting your children, do not kiss near their mouth. Kissing your children before washing their faces is also not safe" - a newspaper at that time wrote.

Another case was in the first century AD, when the herpes epidemic was spreading, the second Roman Emperor Tiberius also issued a complete ban on kissing throughout the empire.

Once again, the plague struck humanity, and once again, people were afraid to kiss.

Cheek kisses are a basic and familiar greeting between friends, colleagues and even leaders in many European countries, but now, as the pandemic sweeps the globe, people are starting to stop themselves from making these inherent reflexes to show affection.

"We live in a culture that needs contact, and so we naturally want to touch each other," said Picard, author of "Politeness, Manners, and Social Relations." "Our civilization needs human warmth. But I suspect people will stop kissing," she said, referring to kissing in Mediterranean cultures, including her native France, in the context of the current global pandemic.

At a press conference discussing the government's measures to combat the spread of the disease, French Health Minister Olivier Véran urged the French to avoid shaking hands and, better yet, to stop kissing. The French have become reluctant to kiss, and understandably so. Faced with the existential threat of the pandemic, it is understandable that people would accept a temporary abandonment of this very French tradition.

But kissing is not just an act, a culture, it is also a symbol (not just of France, but of all humanity); and there are many other cultures, cultures and traditions we are so familiar with that are gradually fading away due to the impact of the pandemic, such as the cash culture of Germans, the festival culture of Latin countries, the culture of celebrating holidays, anniversaries, organizing gatherings... of our own.

Not only in France, on street corners in Rome, in front of cafes or in shops on the street, people also come across actions that replace kisses: they greet each other with air kisses, with gestures from a distance, with elbow touches...

This pandemic has changed everything we know and are used to, especially the ways we maintain human social connection (according to Bhavna Jani-Negandhi). But kissing, over the course of more than a thousand years of history, has also proven itself to be more than a ritual, a way of expressing or seeking affection. It seems to belong to, and originate from, instinct.loveandshareof human

Maybe the “kissing culture” is still drifting in the vortex of the pandemic, but we know that one day, when the crisis passes and life returns to its normal trajectory, ashistory of each generationHundreds of thousands of years ago, humans once again turned to instinctive connections.

How did their lips meet? How did birds sing, snow melt, roses bloom, and dawn break behind the bleak trees on a trembling hilltop? One kiss, and that was it.

- Victor Hugo