In a bar , you may have noticed hoi polloi hump their shot glasses on the table before they down their drink and think " why are they doing that ? "
Well , you ’re not alone . It ’s not exclusively clear to some people why they are doing it either , and there are multiple explanations for the far-out customs .
One account is hard-nosed .
“ It all go out back to the early juke joints , where sawdust was placed on the dance floor for soft cleaning should the necessity arise , " bartender Sammy Mentkowski toldThe Drinks Business . “ After particularly raucous wang dang scribble , sawdust atom would make full the air cover everything in the vicinity let in the glasswork . Tapping the drinking glass on the streak was a way of life to dispatch sediment before taking a gulp of that angelic saltation juice . ”
Now that we are n’t genu - trench in sawdust like intoxicated hamsters , the tap is now used as a augury of respect to the bartender . However , there are other possible and somewhat more morbid explanation , as highlighted byMental Floss .
The practice may have acquire from " pour one out " on the ground to remember a deadhomie . The custom is far old than you might expect . Known as a " libation " , inAncient Egyptpeople would pour water on the ground as an offer to the dead , or to a deity , and the same take place in Ancient Rome . The practice is also reference in Genesis , with Jacob pour a deglutition oblation to God at the position where he had verbalize to him .
One theory goes that tapping the glass is a new , less - wasteful way of respect the drained . It ’s a double respect bonus if the deceased also happened to hate release .
In Ireland , meanwhile , it was manifestly asuperstitionthat tapping the shabu dispels spirits ( the Casper kind , rather than rum ) .
It ’s fair to say these ancient meanings are lose on many people doing shots today , but perhaps that ’s hunky-dory . The bartender feels respect , your dead admirer feels remembered and you , unaware of all this , get to bang your ice on the table ( fun ) and then tope a guessing .
[ H / T : Mental Floss ]
