The origin of the act of clinking cups can be explained through three ancient civilizations in the world: Roman, Greek and Chinese.
In the ancient Roman arenas, cupbearers often celebrated after each match by eating and drinking together.
In this case, people on the same table can completely be enemies, so they come up with a way to touch the cups together so that the water spills from one glass to another, helping to check if the opposite direction is abandoned. poison in the glass of wine or not.
Another opinion is that cup-catching originated with the ancient Greeks. The Greeks found that when drinking alcohol, the whole body enjoys the delicious taste of the drink, only one part does not enjoy it, which is the ear. Therefore, they invented the clinking of cups to create pleasant “clicks”, helping all senses to join the wine party.
The Chinese civilization also recorded the habit of drinking alcohol in ancient texts as “cue dai” (lifting the cup) and “can doi” (drying the cup). The Chinese will together raise the wine cup high, then drink the bottom in one gulp. After the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese custom of cup-raising was combined with Western cup-cutting, helping to make cup-touching culture more and more popular.