This Valentine's Day--the Romantic Kiss has an Odd and Interesting History

By Jim Forsyth

February 14, 2017

A kiss may be just a kiss, but when you engage in the popular Valentine's Day activity, you are taking part in an activity which is a lot more recent, and with a lot more interesting history, than you may realize, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

"Kissing is really only a few hundred years old," Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University and one of the world's foremost experts on the history and culture of kissing, tells News Radio 1200 WOAI.

He says Henry VIII would not have engaged in romantic kissing with any of his famous six wives, nor would the legendary lover Don Juan have puckered up with any of the women he is said to have been romantically involved with.

Bryant says for most of European history, kissing for romantic reasons was unknown. It was generally seen as a sign of respect, or a public acknowledgement of a person's place in the hierarchy of society.

"The reason you would kiss the Pope on his ring instead of on the face or anything, is you are publically acknowledging that you are not of the same rank."

He says people would kiss the crucifix, kiss the queen on the hand, or kiss to show military fealty in the days before insignia.

A lieutenant, for example, might be kissed on the hand, while a general would be kissed on the feet.

People would also, for example, kiss the ground to celebrate the successful completion of a sea voyage.

Bryant says romantic kissing was introduced to Europe only in the Age of Discovery, when explorers visited India, and returned with sexy texts like the famous Kama Sutra.