Sampled and recommended by All Together Art.
Raising your glass and sharing a toast of good wishes to your health and good fortune with a group of friends or new acquaintances is one of the rituals that the world shares.
The custom of a host drinking to a friend's health originated with the Greeks as early as the sixth century B. C. and for a highly practical reason: to assure guests that the wine they were about to consume was not
poisoned. Thus, a host sipped the first wine poured from the decanter, and satisfied of its safety, the guests raised their glasses and drank. This drinking in sequence--guests following host--came to symbolize a sort of pledge of friendship and amity.
The Romans adopted the Greek penchant for poisoning and the custom of drinking as a pledge of friendship. The Romans added a custom of dropping a burnt piece of toast into the cup of wine, therefore, the origin of the verbal usage. In time the drink itself
became a toast.
