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#280138 - 11/25/04 04:23 AM
Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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Anonymous
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Do you know why we use our right hand to shake hands when greeting others?
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#280139 - 11/25/04 03:00 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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To show you are not armed. It goes back to the days when swords were common and generally held in the right hand.
The military tradition of the hand salute is not far from this either. The right hand was used to raise one's visor so that two men could see one another and know who it was and if it was a friend. The process of raising the visor became the salute.
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#280140 - 11/25/04 03:29 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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Midlands SC
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#280141 - 11/26/04 02:48 AM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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Oh Andy, you are just full of so much wisdom.
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#280143 - 11/26/04 03:14 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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Hold on - the question was "why do we use our right hand to shake hands?" Not, "why do we shake hands?"
And I think the answer has to do with a disturbing use of the left hand by our predecessors.
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#280145 - 11/26/04 03:34 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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Yes, the good was always at "the right hand of the Lord".
Well that's alot of bunk, cause my Dad was left handed, and he was the best man I have ever known. Good, kind, moral, generous, and above all, loving.
I may be a righty, but my Dad's nickname was Lefty. He could write beautifully with both hands, cause the Catholic nuns beat his left hand with rulers when he wrote with it in school. As soon as he got out, he went back to left handed writing. His penmanship was so smooth, not at all like my grade school scratching.
In fact, most of my cousins knew him as Uncle Lefty, not Uncle Floryan.
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#280147 - 11/26/04 04:10 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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No, it really wouldn't have ocurred to me to Tivo that one...
I think I first heard this in a Religion class in college. Something about a left-handed Hebrew who killed the ruler of one of their enemies. Ehud? I'd have to look it up. The point was that he was shunned because he was left-handed, but used that to his advantage when he pulled a knife.
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#280148 - 11/26/04 04:46 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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Quote:
I've heard this too. Goes back to Biblical times and traditions. The left hand was reserved for 'unclean' activities while the right hand was reserved for eating, greeting and other public purposes.
I would hesitate to label the right hand shake as a practice that dates back to "biblical times", as this gesture existed well before Christianity was around. As a note, I will not venture to say that the following explanation is "the" explanation for the handshake with the right hand.
Roman soldiers were introduced to the Persian god Mithras as the Empire expanded to Persia and the Mediterrenean. Mithras is also referred to in Roman texts as the "Sol Invictus" or "Invincible Sun". I believe this had to do with Mithras' association with the Babylonian calendar; however, I could be mistaken. The association with Babylonians and Mithras is important to note, because it was through the god Mithras that Hammurabi received his famous "code" in 18th century B.C.E.
Regardless, a cult of Mitras was born, and was adopted as a patron God of Roman soldiers. Since he represented a very strong ethical code, it is only natural that the soliders gravitated towards him. Following the code was a natural ward against evil and harm, something which soliders desperately needed.
As a result, the handshake developed by those soldiers as a gesture to show that you were unarmed. Normally, you would carry your weapon in your right hand and a shield in your left. To shake someone's hand, you would have to lower your shield AND be unarmed in order to make the connection, obviously this shows is a gesture of trust / friendship, in accordance with Mithraic principles.
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#280150 - 11/26/04 05:00 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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Quote:
I would hesitate to label the right hand shake as a practice that dates back to "biblical times", as this gesture existed well before Christianity was around.
Much of the Bible was around well before Christianity or the Roman Empire. I think reference to the period as "Biblical Times" is descriptive and accurate.
Here is the story I was recalling (from Judges 3):
Quote:
Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD , and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
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Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD , and he gave them a deliverer-Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king."
The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.
Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
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After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their Lord fallen to the floor, dead.
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While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah.
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#280151 - 11/26/04 05:20 PM
Re: Why do we use our right hand to shake hands?
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*Surrenders*
Sorry, I was thinking in terms of the New Testament. That was awfully ignorant of me to think solely in terms of the New Testament.
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