The toast: a poisonous tradition or an act of goodwill?

Around these modern times, a toast is always a celebration of health, friendship, the beginning of a new love and, if mutually agreed, even its end; the success of a project, or many reasons, always associated with good wishes and the nice things that life brings from time to time.

There are various versions of the birth of this practice of raising the arm and clinking glasses for certain reasons throughout time.

One of the legends holds that the tradition dates back to the 16th century, right in May 1527, when Charles V's troops victoriously took and plundered the city of Rome.

According to digital publications, some historians state that, on the occasion of that victory, the military commanders filled their glasses with wine, raised them to the front and pronounced the phrase bring dir's, which means “I offer it to you”, and thus the tradition was born.

More recent hypotheses place the origins of toasting in the Greek and Roman societies, fond of great parties where those present would clink glasses in a mute message to the servants: fill it up again.

However, an urban legend has it that banquet hosts in ancient Greece had to prove that the wine was not poisoned but fit for consumption, so he raised the glass and drank from it before the attendees.

In the Middle Ages, when poisoning an enemy was still commonplace and widespread mutual suspicion abounded, distrust became rampant between parents and children, siblings and friends every time wine was offered.

Faced with the specter of betrayal, a particular and soon favored way of toasting appeared, consisting of clinking glasses vigorously so that all were splashed by the liquor, from which it follows that if the wine was poisoned,
the other would also go to the grave: something like the old saying: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Fortunately, this "cutting and thrusting” did not reach our days, unlike the healthy, civilized and exalting practice of toasting, a gesture brimming with good vibes among toasters, a sort of wink that life gives you, secretly calling you to "live it".