Why in Hungary there are no ‘cheers!’ with beers
I had lunch in a central London restaurant this week and fell into conversation with our Hungarian waiter, deploying all half dozen of my Hungarian words. He told me something about Hungarians that i did not know , even though I have been to the country three times.
I found the explanation in this piece on the Net:
“As anyone who has committed the heinous crime of clinking beer glasses to say cheers in a bar in Budapest can testify, Hungary is a land brimming with nationalist sensitivities. For the record, this particular idiosyncrasy goes back to 1848 when the Austrians crushed a national uprising and celebrated the impending execution of upstart Hungarian leaders with a veritable cacophony of beer glass clinking. Hungarian nationalists pledged to observe a self-imposed ban on the practice for 150 years. But almost a decade after the statute of limitations expired it is still considered deeply insulting.”