外國人喝酒之前為什么要碰杯

外國人喝酒之前為什么要碰杯

　　外國人喝酒之前為什么要碰杯？據說碰杯的儀式起源于確認杯中有無毒藥，到底事實是怎樣的呢？下面快來看看吧。

　　Q:為什么喝酒時要碰杯?

　　A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then just touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

　　Origins: Many explanations have been advanced to explain our custom of clinking glasses when participating in toasts. One is that early Europeans felt the sound helped to drive off evil spirits. Another holds that by clanking the glasses into one another, wine could be sloshed from glass to glass, thereby serving as a proof the beverages had not been poisoned. Yet another claim asserts that the "clink" served as a symbolic acknowledgment of trust among imbibers who did not feel the need to sample each others' drinks to prove them unadulterated.

　　A：過去常常有人認為在酒杯里放毒來謀殺敵人，為了證實酒是安全的，賓客會把杯中一部分酒倒進主人杯中已成為一種習俗，然后主賓同時喝下去以證明無毒。當賓客信認主人時，兩人就只是碰一下杯子。

　　起源：喝酒碰杯的習俗有很多種解釋。一種是早期歐洲人認為碰杯的聲音可以驅逐惡靈。另一種解釋堅持認為碰杯時雙方各將自己的酒向對方的酒杯中傾注一些，從而證明酒中無毒。然而還有另一種則認為：碰杯是一種象征性的相信酒是干凈的，不需證明有沒有放毒。

　　Each of those explanations is false. While making a racket for the purpose of scaring off evil spirits underpins other customs that carry over to this day (e.g., the tolling of church bells at weddings, and the loud shouts and noisemaking at the stroke of twelve on New Year's Eve), the "clink" is a relatively new aspect of toasting and, as such, came along well after folks had relinquished the notion that demons both lurked in every corner of typical day-to-day existence and could be sped on their way by a bit of noise. As for sloshing wine from one glass to another, drinking vessels would need to be filled to the brim to effect that, and if they were, such practice would waste valuable potables (because some would be sure to land on the floor) and likely douse the toasters too. And while the poisoning of enemies has long been part of the ordinary mayhem of the world, the practice of touching of one's filled glass to those of others when participating in a toast is unrelated to suspicion of the wine's having been tampered with; such killings were not so common at any nebulous point in the past that a signal to one's host indicating he was clear of suspicion of attempted murder needed to be enshrined in the canon of social gestures.

　　以上那些觀點都是錯誤的。雖然碰杯驅邪說法衍生出了很多習俗并沿用至今(例如婚禮上教堂的鐘聲、大聲喊叫還有除夕夜正點的狂歡。)，但碰杯是祝酒中相對較新的一環，是人們不再相信惡靈存在于我們生活中的每個角落這一觀念之后才產生的。其實人們只是為了要一些熱鬧而已。至于碰杯使酒從一方流到另一方，那么酒器是需要盛滿酒的，如果盛滿了，那這樣就會浪費昂貴的飲料(因為肯定會有酒灑到地上去)還有可能潑到食物上。雖然毒死敵人世界上以前的確被用過，但喝酒時把酒倒進另一個人的酒杯里，無端地猜疑無辜的人是不合理的。更何況在過去這種殺人方式并不常用，因為這意味著主人的社會地位會因涉嫌企圖謀殺而發生動搖。