Fox Photos/Getty Images A happy-looking 1930s couple toasts. The
act of toasting feels natural: You lift your arms in affirmation
and drink in honor of an occasion or a loved one. It's what
millions will do this week as they ring in the New Year, but
why? Like shaking hands or saluting, toasting is a habit with
incredibly foggy beginnings, so we here at The Salt decided to
dig into it, for the sake of science. "There's a thin line
between history and folklore," says historian Paul Dickson. He
should know. He wrote a book about toasting called Toasts: Over
1,500 of the Best Toasts, Sentiments, Blessings and Graces. "But
toasting definitely goes back to the ancient world." Ulysses
drank to the health of Achilles in The Odyssey, he says. And in
Rome, drinking to someone's health was so important that the
Senate demanded that all diners drink to their emperor,
Augustus, before every meal. Almost every culture — the Hebrews,
Egyptians, Persians, Saxons, Huns — had a pledging of honor with
a glass, Dickson says. Bu