What’s in a handshake?

Shaking hands is a common experience that occurs for most of us regularly in the daily routine of life. When we meet a friend, or even a stranger, we greet that person warmly by extending “the right hand of fellowship” and clasping the other person’s right hand.

Also a handshake may occur when we part ways and bid that friend good-bye. At other times, a handshake may be used to express agreement between two individuals when a business deal has been completed. Even the dictionary defines a handshake as a “greeting, farewell, promise, sealing a bargain.”

The custom of handshaking is old, and as time passed, the method of shaking hands has changed. Many centuries ago, shaking hands was an ancient ceremonial testimony between two people who wanted to enter into a friendly pact or agreement. Each would cut his palm, and then, with the blood flowing, they would clasp hands; the flowing blood would blend together and become one blood.

For them, handshaking meant something significant. The mixing of blood bound their lives together in an undying witness of solidarity.

We no longer shake hands to make a “blood bond,” but we do shake hands to signify a tie that binds us in friendship and trustworthiness.

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 7:01 PM with the headline "What’s in a handshake?."