Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Kiss my hand!


Among the troops who came to "take a look" at me during my first visit to Jordan in the year 2001, there was the Shiekh of the family or the tribe who honoured me by his unexpected visit, for I was the one who's supposed to go to introduce myself to him in his place out of respect to his age and rank, but apparently, he, like many others, couldn't wait to see this alien coming from Mars, oh I mean from Lebanon, to meet her family for the first time.
They announced the arrival of the Sheikh who happens to be my father's uncle, and at the moment people caught sight of him, young and old, they hurried to greet him and kiss his hand.
Since he was asking about me, looking at faces and trying to find where his "sweet granddaughter" is, I came to him introducing myself, and he in his turn offered me his hand to be kissed!
I turned a confused look at my brother "what???? Am I supposed to kiss HIS hand as well?!!", and my brother was like "Oh God, just do it! ma tefda7eena!!".
and I looked like : "what the heck? No I'm not going to do it! Never!"
I simply shook his hand, and asked him to take a seat. Our Sheikh couldn't hide his shock from the fact that a member of the family did not kiss his hand, and I bet that he felt insulted or even humiliated!
I've always hated this habit. I've never kissed my father's hand, and I do kiss my mother's only when trying to caress her or something, but she hates it and always asks me not to do it again.
In Jordan, I noticed that everybody kisses the hands of his mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother and any old person in the family.
I'm not totally against it, as I said I do kiss my mother's hand, but never will I kiss my aunt's or uncle's or some Sheikh's hand. It's just I found it a bit strange for I'm not used to it.
I yelled at my nephew once when he tried to kiss my hand and I warned him from doing it again. I can't imagine myself when I get older to be offering my hand to people to kiss it.
Still, I won't mind my future husband kissing my hand for sure :$, LOL.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i don't understand how can he accept the idea being kissed on the hand? maybe then he feels powerful ,he thinks himself he is the leader of sth.
i only kiss the hands of Ommi and aboi as a agesture of respect,obey..cause i do love them and they do deserve it!
you did the right thing Nana..bravo :give:

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid I used to kiss my grandmas' and grandpa's hand... But I stopped doing that while ago. Bu tI have to admit that it feels awekward sometimes when others do it and I'm the only one standing there who doesn't :s

lifeflaw said...

Hahahahaha... well done. ;)

I am also against this "hand kissing" habbit and I never do it; as the Arabic proverb says,
بوس اليدين ضحك على الذقون
I totally agree with it. :)

Eve said...

that must have been awkward!
it's not easy fighting against deeply-rooted mentalities, especially when it has to do with tribes. but it's good you're not forced to marry your cousin :)

Dar said...

Hehe , i kiss my father and mother's hand o kaman my grand father and mother bs ma 7ada tani , bs i like my hand to be kissed , i always offer my hand and raise it for the little kids , my cousins , h3 :) it feels cool , jk , well i do that bs eno for fun nothing more !
CheeerZ!

Dino$ said...

i only kiss old tetahs hands... sometimes my mother.. if i attempt to kiss my dads hands he will probabaly throw a shoe at me.. right now i will aim on his face then we move to his hands lol

i think its about cultures and traditions.. here in uae i think kissing hands is like hello keefak!
and they even have a weird way of salam between men.. they get their noses to kiss.. like hayk bi2arbo thier faces till thier nose tips are mlaz3een fi ba3d and then they do a "bowsa" sound :S i find this very weird..

sho law wa7ad munkharo 2aseer wa shufto kbeer? he would probably have reached his mouth b4 his nose... ye3 :S

Diana said...

this is only one of the few things I found strange for the simple reason that I'm not used to them.
otherwise, I love Jordan and my family there and I'm so proud of them :-)

Eve no, mish la hal darajeh, we don't have this habbit of forcing girls to marry their cousins :). My family is very cool and open minded actually, it's just a few habits that they still stick to, and I think they started to get rid of them.

islamic chocoholic, LOL @ u :D

Anonymous said...

Looks nice! Awesome content. Good job guys.
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Anonymous said...

Good for you gurl!
I wonder hwre did they come with this norm..

my sister & bro used to kiss my grandpa hand each Eid ..i chosae to ignore ..more to his dissappointment in the " el bent el 3akkah"...no one & i mean is worth kissing his/her hand ..this act of slavery among people is kind of a false show of effections ..you can show respect and love by acts ...i don't even kiss my own ma hand and she is the dearest one to my heart ...

i only kiss my own hand after applying lotion ..it feels nice ..soft and worthy of kissing ; )

Diana said...

HELLOOO Guevara

this act of slavery among people is kind of a false show of effections

I totally agree with you on that.