#WisdomWednesday No one knows the precise origin of today’s hand salute. From earliest times and in many distant armies throughout history, the right hand (or weapon hand) has been raised as a greeting of friendship. The idea may have been to show that you werent ready to use a rock or other weapon. Courtesy required that the inferior make the gesture first. Certainly there is some connection between this old gesture and our present salute. The following explanation of the origin of the hand salute is perhaps closest to the truth: It was a long-established military custom for juniors to remove their headgear in the presence of superiors. In the British Navy as late as the American Revolution a sailor saluted by removing his hat. But with the advent of more cumbersome headgear in the 18th and 19th centuries, the act of removing one’s hat was gradually converted into the simpler gesture of grasping the visor, and issuing a courteous salutation.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 14:45:09 +0000
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