On hand kissing
Feb. 20th, 2007 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyI live in a kingdom where this just plain doesn't happen much, at least to me. I'm not sure if it's part of the West's "Oh, we've all been around forever and know each other" casual attitude or what.
So I'm in jeans and a t-shirt unloading firewood from my truck into a pile in the BC at Estrella on Wednesday and this man I don't know starts helping me ferry it inside. At some point in the procedings I say, "Oh, by the way, I'm Jehanne." At which point, the man takes my splinter-laden, work-gloved hand, drops to one knee, introduces himself as Casimir and plants one on my knuckles. It may or may not have been formulaic squire behavior, but it reminded me that this is a greeting I have always enjoyed and appreciated.
It being Estrella and meeting new people being part of the drill, I got a couple more hand kisses during the week. Including one I never would've expected.
I met the samurai from the Outlands for the first time in person at Estrella XXI in 2005. We hit it off in seconds of meeting, but for the duration it was all bowing and smiling and no touching - which was fine because traditionally the Japanese didn't do public displays of affection. When he surprised me by showing up at KWCRS in the fall of the same year, he also surprised me with a big hug. Same thing at Estrella XXII. If I'm in modern or medieval Western clothes, he will touch me, if I'm in Japanese, he won't.
So this year, I found him at the battlefield and got a grinning double armful of armored bushi since I was in wool and linen. For the rest of the week we kept missing each other. When our camp decided to break down and leave on Sunday due to persistent winds, I hightailed it across the site in the hopes of catching him before he left.
He too was packing to leave, but he insisted on walking me back to my camp. We chatted as we walked. When we reached the BC and it was time for him to go back he took my hand in both of his. I was windblown, chapped and dusty in a ratty old tunic and it didn't matter as he bowed and kissed my hand.
So I'm in jeans and a t-shirt unloading firewood from my truck into a pile in the BC at Estrella on Wednesday and this man I don't know starts helping me ferry it inside. At some point in the procedings I say, "Oh, by the way, I'm Jehanne." At which point, the man takes my splinter-laden, work-gloved hand, drops to one knee, introduces himself as Casimir and plants one on my knuckles. It may or may not have been formulaic squire behavior, but it reminded me that this is a greeting I have always enjoyed and appreciated.
It being Estrella and meeting new people being part of the drill, I got a couple more hand kisses during the week. Including one I never would've expected.
I met the samurai from the Outlands for the first time in person at Estrella XXI in 2005. We hit it off in seconds of meeting, but for the duration it was all bowing and smiling and no touching - which was fine because traditionally the Japanese didn't do public displays of affection. When he surprised me by showing up at KWCRS in the fall of the same year, he also surprised me with a big hug. Same thing at Estrella XXII. If I'm in modern or medieval Western clothes, he will touch me, if I'm in Japanese, he won't.
So this year, I found him at the battlefield and got a grinning double armful of armored bushi since I was in wool and linen. For the rest of the week we kept missing each other. When our camp decided to break down and leave on Sunday due to persistent winds, I hightailed it across the site in the hopes of catching him before he left.
He too was packing to leave, but he insisted on walking me back to my camp. We chatted as we walked. When we reached the BC and it was time for him to go back he took my hand in both of his. I was windblown, chapped and dusty in a ratty old tunic and it didn't matter as he bowed and kissed my hand.
