From a precautionary gesture to an obligatory ritual: the long history of the handshake

Clémentine Portier-Kaltenbach 6:41 p.m., January 01, 2022

Remember: before the coronavirus, we happily shook hands with friends, colleagues or acquaintances.

This gesture so common in our "life before", that many of us have practically forgotten, has not always been so popular in our societies.

Do you know what is the origin?

Journalist and columnist Clémentine Portier-Kaltenbach retraced the long history of the handshake in the program Historically yours on Europe 1.

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A precaution to avoid getting killed in Antiquity

"Since when does the handshake exist? The iconography at our disposal shows handshakes in ancient Greece, on stelae from the 5th century BC. Homer mentions the handshake as a gesture in the Iliad. of peace or allegiance.

Among the Romans, shaking hands is a precautionary gesture to ensure that the one opposite does not hide a weapon in its sleeve, or even in the other hand.

Caesar, murdered with 23 stab wounds by senators, was in a good position to know that you could hide a bladed weapon in your sleeve quite easily.

And besides even today, in England we never shake hands between lawyers.

We give each other a cordial wave of the hand because we are supposed to be between lawyers and to trust each other absolutely.

The Romans, to greet each other, hugged their forearms, as in the film Ben-Hur.

A gesture made sacred by Christianity

Before becoming a gesture of greeting, the handshake is sacred from the advent of Christianity in the Western world.

It is in great circumstances, when it is necessary to make a solemn commitment, that one gives one's hand.

As at the time of the marriage, the groom asks for the hand of the girl and the couple join hands to pass the blessed rings to the ring finger.

In the ritual of the oath of homage taken by the vassal to his lord, the vassal kneels down with his hands clasped.

You have to take an oath not to be too cruel.

This tribute has existed for 700 years.

Several ways to shake hands

There are ways of greeting each other and shaking hands as a process of identification, for example among Freemasons who put a finger inside.

There is also the 'tope la' between merchants, which is like a handshake and helps seal a deal.

There are two handshakes that are known around the world: the French and the English 'shake hand'.

We French people shake hands all the time.

While the English are shaking their hands.

And the handshake is given once and for all when we meet.

They are less fond of handshakes than we are.

A symbol of equality popularized during the French Revolution

Until the French Revolution, the handshake was practiced only among the nobility and the upper middle class. In the common people, they gave each other hugs and hugs. The English handshake became fashionable in France at the end of the 18th century, and it was Voltaire who spoke about it. It was Marie-Antoinette who would have seen Lucy de Dillon making a 'shake hand' to the Duke of Dorset, Ambassador of England, in 1787. It was after this that the 'shake hand' began to spread. Casanova mentions it in his memoirs.

Then with the revolution, the handshake is democratized.

If you look at the painting that represents the Jeu de Paume oath, we shake hands.

In the table between the clergy and the third estate, which represents the night of August 4 and the abolition of privileges, the characters shake hands.

This gesture has become popular because by shaking hands, we put ourselves in a position of equal.

It is the idea of ​​equality between subjects, we abandon a system in which we bow down to a hierarchy.

When handshakes become historic

But it will take time for the handshake to become obvious. This scene of Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, 60 years after the French Revolution attests to this. "They walked towards each other. He held out his hand, she hesitated. English style, she said, abandoning his."

After which the handshake becomes diplomatic usage.

And then, the handshakes become historic: handshake between Ribbentrop and Molotov in 1939 (during the signing of the Non-Aggression Pact between Nazi Germany and the USSR in 1939, note), handshake between the Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989, the famous handshake between Kohl and Mitterrand on the anniversary of the end of the First World War.

All handshakes are now highly publicized.

There is not a Head of State who has not been photographed shaking hands with the President of the Republic on the steps of the Élysée Palace.

It has become a mandatory ritual. "