Fun Factoids I Learned Today

• Toasting drinks by hitting each other's glass is a habit that originated in the Middle Ages. The idea behind it was that if you bang your mugs of mead together with force, some of your drink spills into the other person's mug. This is a good way to prevent the other guy from poisoning you. (This habit is similar to waving or shaking hands as ways to greet someone: both are intended to show you are carrying no weapons.)
• Hungarians only toast by raising the glass. This is because hitting the other person's glass was something Austrians did over Hungarian corpses.