你知道喝酒爲什麼要碰杯嗎?

Claim: The ritual of clinking glasses evolved from efforts to prove that the drinks contained therein were not poisoned.
聲稱：碰杯的儀式起源於確認杯中有無毒藥

False
錯誤

Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?
Q:爲什麼喝酒時要碰杯？

A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then just touch or clink the host's glass with his own.
A：過去常常有人認爲在酒杯裏放毒來謀殺敵人，爲了證實酒是安全的，賓客會把杯中一部分酒倒進主人杯中已成爲一種習俗，然後主賓同時喝下去以證明無毒。當賓客信認主人時，兩人就只是碰一下杯子。

Origins: Many explanations have been advanced to explain our custom of clinking glasses when participating in toasts. One is that early Europeans felt the sound helped to drive off evil spirits. Another holds that by clanking the glasses into one another, wine could be sloshed from glass to glass, thereby serving as a proof the beverages had not been poisoned. Yet another claim asserts that the "clink" served as a symbolic acknowledgment of trust among imbibers who did not feel the need to sample each others' drinks to prove them unadulterated.
起源：喝酒碰杯的習俗有很多種解釋。一種是早期歐洲人認爲碰杯的聲音可以驅逐惡靈。另一種解釋堅持認爲碰杯時雙方各將自己的酒向對方的酒杯中傾注一些，從而證明酒中無毒。然而還有另一種則認爲：碰杯是一種象徵性的相信酒是乾淨的，不需證明有沒有放毒。

Each of those explanations is false. While making a racket for the purpose of scaring off evil spirits underpins other customs that carry over to this day (e.g., the tolling of church bells at weddings, and the loud shouts and noisemaking at the stroke of twelve on New Year's Eve), the "clink" is a relatively new aspect of toasting and, as such, came along well after folks had relinquished the notion that demons both lurked in every corner of typical day-to-day existence and could be sped on their way by a bit of noise. As for sloshing wine from one glass to another, drinking vessels would need to be filled to the brim to effect that, and if they were, such practice would waste valuable potables (because some would be sure to land on the floor) and likely douse the toasters too. And while the poisoning of enemies has long been part of the ordinary mayhem of the world, the practice of touching of one's filled glass to those of others when participating in a toast is unrelated to suspicion of the wine's having been tampered with; such killings were not so common at any nebulous point in the past that a signal to one's host indicating he was clear of suspicion of attempted murder needed to be enshrined in the canon of social gestures.
以上那些觀點都是錯誤的。雖然碰杯驅邪說法衍生出了很多習俗並沿用至今（例如婚禮上教堂的鐘聲、大聲喊叫還有除夕夜正點的狂歡。），但碰杯是祝酒中相對較新的一環，是人們不再相信惡靈存在於我們生活中的每個角落這一觀念之後才產生的。其實人們只是爲了要一些熱鬧而已。至於碰杯使酒從一方流到另一方，那麼酒器是需要盛滿酒的，如果盛滿了，那這樣就會浪費昂貴的飲料（因爲肯定會有酒灑到地上去）還有可能潑到食物上。雖然毒死敵人世界上以前的確被用過，但喝酒時把酒倒進另一個人的酒杯裏，無端地猜疑無辜的人是不合理的。更何況在過去這種殺人方式並不常用，因爲這意味着主人的社會地位會因涉嫌企圖謀殺而發生動搖。

To get at the real reason for the clink of glass on glass, we have to first look at why and how we toast, and where the practice originated.
那麼要找到喝酒碰杯的真正原因，我們首先應該瞭解的是我們爲什麼喝酒？怎麼喝酒？並會在什麼樣的情況下碰杯？

The custom of sealing with booze expressions of good wishes for the health of others dates back so far that its origins are now lost to us, yet in numerous cultures such acts of camaraderie often involved shared drinking vessels. The clinking of individual cups or glasses as a proof of trust wouldn't have meant much when everyone drank from the same bowl. Indeed, in those cultures where shared drinking containers was the norm, to produce one's own vessel in such company was to communicate an unmistakable message of hostility and distrust; it would have been regarded as akin to bringing along a food taster to sample the repast.
我們很難找到喝酒狂歡表達良好祝願如身體健康等的起源。然而在衆多中，朋友之間的行爲會經常涉及到祝酒，每個人從同一個碗裏喝酒，那麼碰杯就不再是信任彼此的證明。實際上，在這樣一種文化裏，公用同一個酒器成爲一種規則，單獨用你自己的酒杯會帶來敵對和不信任的誤解信息，這將被認爲同做餐後的食物品嚐家的品嚐行爲來防毒相類似。

"Toasting," our term for the pronouncement of benedictions followed by a swallowing of alcohol, is believed to have taken its name from a practice involving a shared drinking vessel. Floated in the "loving cup" passed among celebrants in Britain was a piece of (spiced) cooked bread that the host would consume along with the last few drops of liquid after the cup had made one round of the company. In modern times toasting has become a matter of imbibing from individual drinking vessels rather than from one shared flagon, so to compensate for the sense of unity lost in doing away with the sharing of the same cup we have evolved the practice of simultaneously drinking each from our own glass when a toast is made, thereby maintaining a communal connection to the kind words being spoken.
“乾杯”，我們喝酒後緊隨祝福的一句，名字來源被認爲是一個涉及公用的酒杯的行爲。英國神父流傳來的流動的“愛情杯”是主人當酒杯走過一輪後在一塊烹製的麪包滴幾滴酒吃掉的。現在祝酒，不再公用一個酒杯，而是用自己的杯子。爲了彌補羣體脫離感，拋棄了公用酒杯，我們開始用自個的杯子，因此祝酒才產生了。因此一種靠說友好祝福維繫關係的方式產生了。

The clinking of glasses has been added to the practice of offering toasts for a few reasons, none having anything to do with poison. Prior to such augmentation, toasts pleased only four of the five senses; by adding the "clink," a pleasant sound was made part of the experience, and wine glasses have come to be prized not only for their appearance but also for the tones they produce when struck. Yet beyond mere aural pleasure, the act of touching your glass to that of others is a way of emphasizing that you are part of the good wishes being expressed, that you are making a physical connection to the toast. The practice also serves another purpose, that of uniting the individuals taking part in the benediction into a cohesive group: as the wine glasses are brought together, so symbolically are the people holding them. On a deeper level, the wine is also being recommuned with itself — that which had been one (when it had been in its own bottle) but was separated (when it was poured into a variety of glasses) is brought back into contact with the whole of itself, if only for a moment.
碰杯因一些原因也被加進祝酒的行列，和毒藥沒有一絲關係。增加了這些，祝酒使氣氛好了五分之四。通過加碰杯這一環節，一種悅耳的聲音成爲祝酒的一部分。並且不僅僅讚美杯的出現還讚美酒杯碰撞時發出的響聲。然而除了聽覺享受外，有人和你碰杯也是一種友好祝福的暗示。你通過祝酒與人發生了接觸。碰杯還有另一個意圖，就是通過人與人的祝酒使之參加到一個有關聯的大集體。當酒杯碰在一起的時候，人們也象徵性地“擁抱”了。深層次的說，人也是（當用自己的杯子喝酒時）在一起的，（當酒在一起時）人其實是分開的，從某種意義上說，酒有了人迴歸一個完整的聯繫的含義。

Etiquette mavens say one need not clink glasses with everyone present when participating in toasts among large assemblies. Rather than reach across vast expanses of wide tables (thereby risking losing your balance and ending up in the guacamole), simply raise your glass and make eye contact with the group.
禮節上在現在當一個人參加一個大聚會時不需要和每個人碰杯。相比較隔個大桌子（而冒着失去平衡的危險）碰杯而言，還不如舉起酒杯眼神交流感情來得真切。