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Toasts
Retro photo by Thayne Tuason /CC BY-SA 4.0/ Wikimedia Commons
A good toast is like a miniskirt; it should be short enough to be interesting,
but long enough to cover the essentials.
A toast is a social tradition of raising a glass, saying a goodwill word or phrase, clinking your glass with everyone else’s glass, and then drinking from your glass. This ritual unites the drinkers in a moment of togetherness. Toasts are usually done during celebratory events and occasions for two or more people.
When friends with other friends contrive, To make their glasses clink, Then not one sense of all the five, Is absent from a drink, For touch and taste and smell and sight, Evolve in pleasant round, And when the flowing cups unite, We thrill to sense of sound.
~Unknown
No one knows when toasting first began. The term first made an appearance in the 1600s; however, it is believed that Greeks and Romans used the act of toasting as a way to determine if the wine was poisoned (the clinking of the goblets caused the wine to spill into one another’s vessels). Another story suggests that burned bread (toast) was dipped into wine before the toasting ritual.
“Here’s mud in your eye!”
It’s believed that this toast came from World War II as a wish of good fortune to farmers. It’s also believed it came from the kick of mud thrown in your face from a winning horse at the horse track.
“Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Humphrey Bogart made this toast famous in the 1942 film Casablanca.
“Down the hatch!”
“Hatch” is a naval word for “door.” When stocking a ship with barrels of alcohol, seamen would load barrels through a door and down the hatch.
“Bottoms up!”
It means the bottom of the glass is up.
“Cheers!”
It’s said that this was a lower-class toast in England. The upper class would say, “To your health.”
“Drink Martinis.
Two at the very most.
Three I’m under the table.
Four I’m under the host.”
—Dorothy Parker
“I drink to your charm, your beauty, and your brains. Which gives you a rough idea of how hard up I am for a drink.”
—Groucho Marx
“Everybody has to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.”
—W. C. Fields
“I drink to your health in public. I drink to your health alone. I’ve drunk to your health so many times, I’m now worried about my own.”
“It’s better to have a bottle in front of you than a frontal lobotomy.”
“Here’s champagne for our real friends and real pain for our sham friends.”
“Here’s to living single and drinking double.”
“There are several good reasons for drinking, and one has just entered my head.
If a man can’t drink when he’s living
then how the hell can he drink when he’s dead?”
“Here’s to you as good as you are,
Here’s to me as bad as I am,
But as good as you are,
And as bad as I am,
I’m just as good as you are,
As bad as I am!”
“Another candle on your cake?
Well, that’s no cause to pout.
Be glad that you have strength enough, to blow the darn things out!”
Popular Drinking Toasts
Global Drinking Toasts
Albania: “Gezuar.”
Arabic: “Belsalamati.”
Armenia: “Genatzt.”
Austria: “Prosit.”
Azerbijan: “Noosh Olsum.”
Bali: “Selamat.”
Belgium: “Op Uw Gezonheid.”
Brazil: “Saude.”
Burma: “Auug Bar See.”
China: “Wen Lei” and “Gampi.”
Croatia: “Na Zdravlje.”
Czech Republic: “Nazdravie.”
Denmark: “Skaal.”
Egypt: “Fee Sihetak.”
England: “Cheers!”
Esperanto: “Ja Zia Sano.”
Estonia: “Tervist.”
Ethiopia: “Letenatchie.”
Finland: “Kippis.”
France: “A Votre Sante.”
Germany: “Prosit.”
Georgia Republic: “Gaumardjos.”
Greece: “Iss Ighian.”
Greenland: “Kasugta.”
Hawaii: “Okele Maluna.”
Holland: “Proost.”
Hungary: “Kedves Egeszsegere.”
Iceland: “Samtaka Nu.”
India: “Aancllld.”
Indonesia: “Selamat.”
Ireland: “Slainte.”
Israel: “L’Chaim.”
Italy: “Alla Tua Salute.”
Japan: “Kampai.”
Korea: “Ul Wi-Ha Yo.”
Kyrgyzstan: “Den Sooluck Yuchun.”
Latvia: “Lai ta Buda Ruc.”
Lebanon: “Vesar.”
Lithuania: “Sveikata.”
Malaysia: “Yam Seng.”
Malaya: “Slamat Minum.”
Mexico: “Salud.”
Morocco: “Saha Wa Afiab.”
New Zealand: “Kia-Ora.”
Norway: “Skaal.”
Old English: “Wes Thu Hale.”
Pakistan: “Zanda Bashi.”
Persia (Iran): “Salaamati.”
Philippines: “Mabuhay.”
Poland: “Na Zdrowie.”
Portugal: “A Sua Saude.”
Romania: “Noroc.”
Russia: “Za Vashe Zdorovia.”
Scotland: “Shlante.”
Slovakia: “Nazdravie.”
South Africa: “Gesonoheid.”
Spain: “Salud.”
Sudan: “Sabatuk Fy.”
Swahili: “Afya.”
Sweden: “Skal.”
Syria: “Kull Sana Wo” and “Enta Salem.”
Tagalog: “Mubuhcly.”
Tanzania: “Kwa Afya Yako.”
Thailand: “Chai-o.”
Tibet: “Phun Tsun Tsok.”
Turkey: “Sherefe.”
Ukraine: “Budjmo” and “Na Zdorovya.”
Wales: “Lechyd da.”
Zulu: “Oogy Wawa.”