Drinking etiquette that actually matters
Every country has its own unwritten rules for raising a glass. Some toasts need eye contact, some need two hands, and some come with a chant. Here are the drinking customs worth knowing before your next trip, plus where a few of these toasts come from.
Germany: Lock eyes or don't bother.
Prost only counts if you make eye contact and clink the rim. Toasting into the middle of the table without meeting anyone's gaze is considered bad form. Tradition says it brings seven years of bad luck (or as a popular joke commonly expressed as seven years of bad sex). 😀 Germans love a penalty.
Japan: Never pour your own.
Fill your neighbor's glass, wait for someone to fill yours, and say Kanpai together. Avoid chin chin. It's a childish word for male genitalia in Japanese, not a toast.
South Korea: Two hands, turned away.
When an elder pours, hold your glass with both hands. When you drink in front of them, turn slightly away and cover the glass. Geonbae comes after the pour, never before.
Gān bēi means "dry the cup," and at a formal table the junior's glass should sit lower than the senior's when you clink. It's a small gesture that says a lot.
France: Skip the water clink.
Santé with wine is standard, but clinking glasses of water is traditionally considered bad luck. When in doubt, clink only what has alcohol in it.
Hungary: Beer clinks are complicated.
Hungary has an unusual drinking tradition dating back to the 19th century. For many years, Hungarians avoided clinking beer glasses, and some older generations still keep the custom alive. Wine and Pálinka toasts, however, are perfectly welcome. The tradition is often linked to the 1848–1849 revolution, although there is no solid historical evidence to confirm that this story is true.
Georgia: The toast is the event.
A tamada, or toastmaster, leads long poetic toasts, and drinking without one is unusual. Expect to be asked to say something. Brevity is not the local style.
Ireland: It's about health, not volume.
Sláinte means "health," and Sláinte mhaith is "good health". It's a wish, not a dare, so pace yourself accordingly.
Mexico: It's a chant, not a word.
¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro! ("Up, down, to the center, inside!") is a call and response that ends with everyone drinking. You'll hear it at parties more than salud.
Sweden: Follow the host's lead.
When raising a glass for Skål, make eye contact, give a friendly nod and enjoy the moment together. At formal dinners, it's polite to wait until the host starts the toast. In more casual settings, just follow the flow and join in!
History of Cheers
The word cheer began as the Old French chiere, which meant "face". For centuries it stayed close to that idea, shifting from the look on your face to your general mood, then to "good cheer," and by the 1700s to a shout of encouragement. Using "Cheers!" as a drinking toast is much more recent. Most sources point to British English in the early twentieth century. Today it pulls triple duty as a toast, a thank you and a goodbye, and it still does the one thing every toast does: it turns a drink into a shared moment.
A pattern in the toasts
Line up toasts from around the world and a simple pattern emerges. Most of them are wishes for good health. Salud, Santé, Saúde, Sláinte, Na zdraví and Egészségedre all come back to "health". Prost traces to the Latin prosit, roughly "may it do you good". Kanpai and Gān bēi literally mean "dry the cup", so an empty glass is often the point, not an accident. Skål means "bowl", a reference to the vessel rather than the wish. And the old story about Vikings toasting from the skulls of their enemies is a fun image, but it is legend rather than history. The tale grew from a mistranslation of a poem, where the "curved branches of skulls" were actually animal horns used as cups.
