This time of year, the word “cheer” seems to pop up a lot. The word is usually associated with happiness, enthusiasm and encouragement — think of carolers spreading holiday cheer, or the “cheers” you always hear at happy hour, or maybe football fans cheering on their team. And of course the new year is right around the corner — at the stroke of midnight, lots and lots of people will raise their glasses and say “cheers” and toast the new year.
So I wondered all this cheer came about….
“Cheers” originated from the old French word chiere which meant “face” or “head.” But by the 18th century, it came to mean “gladness,” and was used as a way to express encouragement. And today, “Cheers,” has become a symbolic way of toasting with the wish of good cheer and good health to those around us — it’s kind of an expression of camaraderie.
Almost all of us clink glasses with others before a drink. It seems like that has been practiced for centuries. Maybe we clink glasses because it’s a coming together of friends and physically touching glasses makes it more of a communal celebration.
Back in Medieval times, glasses were clinked and peopled cheered loudly to ward off any demons or evil spirits. People also believed that it was good to clink glasses to spill some on the floor — leaving some for the bad spirits so they would leave you alone. A German tradition is to bang mugs of alcohol on the table and yell loudly to scare away ghosts or evil spirits.
And there’s one school of thought that toasting was a way to avoid being poisoned. Back in the days when poisoning a foe’s drink was a convenient way to kill him, it was believed that if glasses were filled to the brim and then clinked hard, a bit of alcohol from each glass would spill into the other.
Ancient civilizations had a way of honoring their gods during drinking ceremonies or feasts. I’m not sure they said “cheers,” but toasting is thought to come from sacrificial libation in which a scared liquid (blood or wine) was offered to the gods in exchange for a wish, or a prayer for health. Both the Greeks and Romans had a tradition to leave an offering to the gods, including alcoholic beverages, during celebrations and often times after a death. In Greek mythology, the god of wine, Bacchus, was often toasted. A lot of times, even today, we raise our glasses upwards to the heavens like we’re offering the gods a toast to the health of the living.
I’ve been a lot of places, and just about all of them say “cheers.” In their own language, of course.
Here’s some I remember from over the years….
In Japanese — Kanpai
Spanish — Salud
German — Prost
French — Sante
干杯 (Ganbei) in Chinese
Hungarian is Ege’szse’gedre
In Polish, it’s Na zdrowie
And in Vietnam, we said “do” (pronounced DZO)
During my extensive research on this subject, I discovered that cheer hasn’t always been used so “cheerily” — but that’s a subject for next time. I’m glad it turned out the way it did — no matter what language, I think it’s a nice custom.
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