How Many Kisses On New Year’s Eve?

It’s one of those cultural nightmares.

If you are celebrating New Year’s Eve in France, or among French people, be aware that geography has some implications in terms of the number of kisses you are allowed to exchange under the mistletoe.

Strange Maps has produced a ‘French Kissing Map’, read its history here.

Claire Ulrich has blogged on it here.

Use the map the rest of the year, too. Don’t assume this is a stupid game. I felt like an idiot the other day, because I left a friend kissing the air. I hadn’t seen her for a long time and I had forgotten. It’s one of those quaint cultural habits that even we French don’t agree on, but we never fight about it.

I wonder, at midnight tomorrow, how many kisses will you exchange with your friends?

Tags: culture, kissing, New Year's Eve