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Handshake
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A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp each other's right or left hand often accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands. While its origins remain obscure, archaeological ruins and ancient texts show that handshaking was practiced as far back as the 2nd century BC. Some researchers have suggested the handshake may have been introduced in the Western World by Sir Walter Raleigh in service with the British Court during the late 16th century.
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Encyclopedia
A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp each other's right or left hand often accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands. While its origins remain obscure, archaeological ruins and ancient texts show that handshaking was practiced as far back as the 2nd century BC. Some researchers have suggested the handshake may have been introduced in the Western World by Sir Walter Raleigh in service with the British Court during the late 16th century. The handshake is thought by some to have originated as a gesture of peace by demonstrating that the hand holds no weapon.
The handshake is initiated when the two hands touch, immediately. It is commonly done upon meeting, greeting, parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement. In sports or other competitive activities, it is also done as a sign of good sportsmanship. Its purpose is to convey trust, balance, and equality.
Unless health issues or local customs dictate otherwise a handshake should always be made using bare hands. In some regions especially in Continental Europe attempting to perform a handshake while wearing gloves may be seen as an inappropriate or even derogatory behavior. In traditional American etiquette the requirement to remove a glove depends on the situation - "A gentleman on the street never shakes hands with a lady without first removing his right glove. But at the opera, or at a ball, or if he is usher at a wedding, he keeps his glove on."
In Anglophone countries, shaking hands is considered the standard greeting in business situations. In casual non-business situations, men are more likely to shake hands than women. It is considered to be in poor taste to show dominance with too strong a handshake; conversely, too weak a handshake (sometimes referred to as a "limp fish" or "dead fish" handshake) is also considered unseemly due to people perceiving it as a sign of weakness.
Atlantic City, New Jersey Mayor Joseph Lazarow was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for a July 1977 publicity stunt, in which the mayor shook more than 11,000 hands in a single day, breaking the record previously held by President Theodore Roosevelt, who had set the record with 8,513 handshakes at a White House reception on January 1, 1907. Similarly, on May 26, 2008, Michael Lennon, Paul Gallasch, Kevin Whittaker and Cory Jens broke the Guinness World Record for the world's longest handshake, shaking hands for nine and a half hours.
Modern customs
There are various customs surrounding handshakes, both generically and specific to certain cultures:
- Generally it is considered inappropriate, if not outright insulting to the initiator side, to reject a handshake without good reason (such as an injured right hand). For example, in November 2008, an Israeli student refused to shake hands with president Shimon Peres. Immediately after, he was detained and interrogated by security for three hours and his student ID was confiscated.
- Individuals involved with the scouting movement specifically use a left handshake, as a convention instituted by Lord Baden-Powell. The idea came from a legend Baden-Powell heard while he was in West Africa. Two warring chiefs confronted each other, wanting peace. He dropped both his weapon and his shield. Not only was his right hand empty of a weapon he could attack with, but his left was empty of a shield of which to defend against the weapons of others with.
- Practitioners of fencing shake with the non-sword hand after a bout. This is due to the sword hand being employed holding the weapon.
- Secret societies and fraternities and sororities often use secret handshakes to identify themselves as initiated brothers or sisters to outside members.
- In American culture, there is a "Soul Brother Handshake," also called a "Power" or "Unity" shake, dating to the 1960s, begun among African-American men, and still widely practiced between men of various races and particularly among teenage boys as a gesture of close friendship. This is usually a three move procedure, beginning with a traditional, palm-to-palm clasp, followed in quick succession by a clasping at the hilt of the thumbs, and finally, by a hooked clasp of only the fingers, in the manner of railroad couplers. Variations include the above, followed by an exchange of facing palm slaps, as in "Gimme Five," or fist bumping, "ham and cheese slides", tops-to-bottoms, "the face slap", or knuckles-to-knuckles.
- In some cultures people shake both hands, but in most cultures people shake the right hand.
- It is generally accepted in Western culture that a male handshake should be firm. Weak handshakes are sometimes referred to as 'limp' or 'cold'.
- The gesture is occasionally prefaced by both parties spitting on their palm, particularly when the handshake is made to complete an agreement.
- It should be noted that in some Oriental countries (like Turkey or the Arabic-speaking Middle East), handshakes aren't as 'strong' as in America and Europe. Consequently a grip which is too firm will be considered as rude.
- Among Arabic-speaking people, handshakes accompanied with the salutation As-Salamu Alaykum (peace be upon you) are an old tradition.
- In Turkey outside business situations, shaking hands is not the standard greeting among men. In casual non-business situations, men will less likely shake hands and among women hardly at all.
- In some religions, such as Islam and Orthodox Judaism (according to some opinions), the prohibition against physical contact between members of opposite sexes precludes shaking hands.
See also
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