I received my first romantic kiss on the walk home from school in the driveway of one of my fellow first graders. As best as I can recall, it was the start and finish of a very brief romance. Fast forward to middle school where my kissing career truly began. What a sloppy, awkward, germ-spewing mess those years were. It got better from there as everyone involved became more experience in the art of kissing, but the kiss that rocked my world didn’t happen until much later.
We met on his birthday as a blind date. I had no initial attraction or lusty reaction, but he grew more and more attractive as I discovered what a charming, thoughtful person he was. Several weeks later we had our first kiss. Both of us had long first marriages and this was the first attempt at dating for both of us. Our four children were all safely accounted for with their other parent. I still remember 12 years later how the first meeting of our lips felt. It was ELECTRIC! I read about kisses that made you swoon, but nothing in my experience could compare. All these years later, the magic is still there and we never let a day go by without taking the time to show it with a kiss, or two or three and on really good days, even more!
So what is the deal with kissing? The first written history of a kiss dates back to 1500 B.C. from India’s Verdic Sanskrit texts. While the word kiss wasn’t mention, there were references to the drinking of moisture from lips. During the 3rd century A.D., the Kama Sutra had an entire chapter on properly kissing a lover. The Song of Solomon from the Old Testament reads, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: For thy love is better than wine.” The ancient Greeks spoke of kissing in Homer’s epics and the early Romans introduced kissing throughout their empire.
The “X” as a sign of a kiss comes from the middle ages when most people couldn’t read or write. They drew an “X” on a line and sealed the document with a kiss to make it legal.
About 90% of the world’s population kisses. Some cultures that frown on kissing are against it for health reasons saying saliva is nasty and full of bacteria. Actually, they are right. There can be 298 colonies of bacteria in a mouth! Some African cultures believe that the mouth is the portal to the soul and that someone can take your spirit away through a kiss.
However you feel about kissing, we at Feronia wish you a hot, happy, germ-free Valentine’s Day and remember: Safer Sex is Hotter Sex!