Sealed with a Kiss
It is customary in our culture for a newly married couple to exchange a kiss at the conclusion of their wedding ceremony. Some believe that the kiss symbolizes the exchange of souls between the bride and the groom, fulfilling the Biblical scripture that “the two shall become one flesh.” Philematologists, scientists who study the anatomy and evolutionary aspect of humans, reason that the kiss may have developed by accident – a couple rubbing noses probably slipped and discovered the thrill of lips touching lips. No one may know when the custom of kissing started. Paris, Prince of Troy, precipitated the 10-year Trojan War when he dared to kiss Menelaus’s wife and became so enthralled by Helen that he had her for his own. Cleopatra’s kisses have been famous for centuries – historians say they destroyed Mark Anthony and probably sealed the sorry fate of Rome. Literary evidence for kissing dates back to around 1500 B.C. from India’s Vedic Sanskrit texts, the foundations