You do it every day and there are few things more enjoyable than sharing it with the woman of your dreams. But there are some facts about kissing that you may not be aware of, so read on.
Fun Facts About Kissing You Didn’t Know
How much do you know about the origins of this intimate act we consider absolutely natural today? Do you know what effects locking lips has on your health? What about the first film in history? Caught your attention? Good. Because we have all the answers to the questions you didn’t even know you wanted to ask.
Where Does Kissing Come From?
Behavior analyst and author Jaqueline Moreno describes French kissing as “passionate, deep, amorous kissing that involves lovers touching their tongues to each other’s lips and inside their mouths.” The phrase “French kiss” was first used by British and American soldiers returning home from Europe after World War I, who “kissed their women and girlfriends in the amorous way they saw the French kiss their women,” Moreno told AskMen. But how did kissing even start? According to Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of ‘The Science of Kissing’ and popular public speaker, the act of kissing evolved from sniffing. Like many animals do, so people centuries ago used smell to “determine a person’s mood, their health, and their social status,” the expert told the Huffington Post. “There were a lot of sniff greetings; they would brush the nose across the face because there are scent glands on our faces, and over time the brush of the face became a brush of the lips, and the social greeting was born that way”.
The First Time A Kiss Made The Silver Screen
Today, there is hardly a film that doesn’t show at least one passionate kiss, and it’s seen as completely natural. But one of the most interesting facts about kissing is that in 1896, when stage actors May Irwin and John Rice re-enacted a scene from their Broadway comedy ‘The Widow Jones’ at Thomas Edison’s Black Maria studio in New Jersey, a cinematic kiss caused a big scandal. ‘The Kiss’, a mere 23-second clip, was banned from public viewing in many places, with the Catholic Church asking for its ban and calling for “moral reform.”
It might seem hard to believe in our “Fifty Shades of Grey” and sexual music videos era, but at the time a single kiss was a real act of revolution.
The Health Benefits Of Kissing
According to kissing expert and author of ‘Kissing: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about One of Life’s Sweetest Pleasures’, Andréa Demirjian, “kissing passionately gets your heartbeat revved in a healthy way that helps lower your blood pressure.” The expert told CNN that “(Kissing) dilates your blood vessels. Blood is flowing in a good, solid fashion and getting to all your vital organs.” It has also been found that kissing reduces cortisol, the hormone that’s linked to weight gain, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. In terms of psychological health, researchers from the Arizona State University conducted a study titled ‘Kissing in Marital and Cohabiting Relationships: Effects on Blood Lipids, Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction’ in which half of 52 participants — who were either married or cohabitating — were asked to “kiss each other more often and for longer periods of time than you typically do right now.” The other half of the participants weren’t given any instructions at all. Six weeks later, the results showed that those who kissed their partners more had lower stress, less cholesterol, and higher relationship satisfaction. Therefore, next time you feel stress taking over you, it may be a good idea to engage in some kissing action. You could say it’s what the doctor prescribed.
Where Can A Kiss Get You Arrested?
Strange as it may seem, some kisses are forbidden in parts of the world, like the USA. For instance, in Iowa men with mustaches can never kiss a woman in public, while in Hartford, Connecticut, men are not allowed to kiss their wives on Sundays. In Colorado, it seems that the fairytale of the Sleeping Beauty is not very popular since one is not allowed to kiss a sleeping lady.
The Guinness World Record For Kissing
If you think your long make-out sessions are impressive, think again. The Guinness World Record for the longest continuous kiss, which was set during a 2013 competition in Thailand, is held by a couple who lasted a (quite literal) breathtaking 58 hours, 35 minutes, and 58 seconds. Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat are the record holders, who won over $9,000 in cash and prizes to compensate for their sore lips and jaws. Hope you found our article interesting. But the best thing about these fun facts about kissing? You can use them to impress your girl next time you meet. Who knows, they may even earn you a hot kiss too.