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Show Drinking Toast Dates Back to Pagan Times Just as nutmeg, spices and so on are still sometimes put Into such a drink, as "punch," so In the olden days a common custom was to slip a mite of toasted bread into a glass of ale with the Idea that the tuste was thereby Improved. And so It came about that a drink was called a toast. The custom of drinking to someone really dates from the old pagan days when sacrifices used to be made to the gods. Later on an offering of wine was made Instead, Its red color typifying typi-fying the actual blood of the real sacrifice. Later still men made their offerings not to the gods but In honor of a friend. So our ancestors would ' drink a glass or roast In honor of someone, and the person honored was as often as not called a toast for short. |