A Kiss Hello

By Kayla Allen
Hand gestures can mean completely different things depending on where you are in the world. A peace sign in the U.S. turned around in Britain could start a fight. The easily recognizable sign for O.K. in the U.S. means zero in France, in Japan it means money or coins and in Brazil, Germany, and the former USSR, it is obscene gesture.
Head movements are the same; what means yes in one country might mean no in another and while handshakes are generally looked upon favorably, how you do it and what exactly the handshake means can also be up for interpretation. While the handshakes origins are speculation, it is widely thought that it was developed to show that neither party was armed and therefore friendly. Now its used as a greeting, as a goodbye, in business deals as well as a sign of mutal respect.
A kiss hello has none of that confusion. The Romans distinguished three types of kisses naming the hello kiss osculum. While the kiss hello can vary by how many kisses you give or receive, whether it be on the cheek or the mouth the general sentiment remains the same, "Hello, nice to meet/see you!"
Americans don't tend to be big kiss hello-ers but in some areas the practice is gaining popularity. Given the amount of things people touch with their hands in a day compared to how many things people kiss in a day I think I'd actually be happier kissing someone hello than shaking their hand and most importantly less likely to get sick. Maybe the fear of sickness is what's driving some to adopt the "air kiss", all sound and movement, no exchange of germs.
Whether you shake, bow, press together or kiss hello, non-verbal gestures have an evolution all their own, who knows how we'll greet each other in 2206.