page_title: Cheek kissing
section_title: Western Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Cheek kissing / Europe / Western Europe
context_page_description: Cheek kissing is a ritual or social kissing gesture to indicate friendship, family relationship, perform a greeting, to confer congratulations, to comfort someone, to show respect.
  Cheek kissing is very common in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, the Low Countries, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, Central America and South America. In other countries, including the U.S. and Japan, cheek kissing is common as well at an international meeting between heads of state and First Ladies or members of royal and the Imperial families.
  Depending on the local culture, cheek kissing may be considered appropriate among family members as well as friends and acquaintances: a man and a woman, two women, or two men. The last has different degrees of familiarity. In Chile brothers and cousins are expected to kiss on the cheek, while in Argentina everyone kisses everyone.
  In Eastern Europe, male–female and female–female cheek kissing is a standard greeting among friends, while male–male cheek kisses are less common. Eastern European communist leaders often greeted each other with a socialist fraternal kiss on public and state occasions.
context_section_description: In France, cheek kissing is called "faire la bise". A popular French joke states that you may recognize the city you are in by counting the number of cheek kisses, as it varies across the country. It is very common, in the southern parts of France, even between males, be they relatives or friends, whereas in the north (Langue-d'oïl France), it is less usual for two unrelated males to perform ′la bise′. (See Kissing traditions#Greetings.) The custom came under scrutiny during the H1N1 epidemic of 2009.
  In the Netherlands and Belgium, cheek kissing is a common greeting between relatives and friends (in the Netherlands slightly more so in the south). Generally speaking, women will kiss both women and men, while men will kiss women but refrain from kissing other men, instead preferring to shake hands with strangers. In the Netherlands usually three kisses are exchanged, mostly for birthdays. The same number of kisses is found in Switzerland and Luxembourg. In the Dutch part of Belgium, one kiss is exchanged as a greeting, and three to celebrate (e.g., a birthday). In Francophone Belgium, the custom is usually one or three kisses, and is also common between men who are friends.
  In northern European countries such as Sweden and Germany, hugs are preferred to kisses. It is customary in many regions to only have kisses between women and women, but not men and women, who only shake hands or hug (more familiar) instead.
  Although cheek kissing is not as widely practiced in the United Kingdom or Ireland as in other parts of Europe, it is still common. Generally, a kiss on one cheek is common, while a kiss on each cheek is also practiced by some depending on relation or reason. It is mostly used as a greeting and/or a farewell, but can also be offered as a congratulation or as a general declaration of friendship or love. Cheek kissing is acceptable between parents and children, family members (though not often two adult males), couples, two female friends or a male friend and a female friend. Cheek kissing between two men who are not a couple is unusual but socially acceptable if both men are happy to take part. Cheek kissing is associated with the middle and upper classes, as they are more influenced by French culture. This behaviour was traditionally seen as a French practice.
caption: French president Charles de Gaulle kisses Argentine president Arturo Illia in 1964.
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