6th July International Kissing Day

International Kissing Day on July 6 celebrates the enjoyable activity of kissing, and the part it plays in cultures throughout the world. Does every culture 'kiss' with their lips?

Before people were able to write, an “X” would be signed. Then the signer would kiss the X as a pledge to honour the signature. Could this be where the “X” symbol came to represent a kiss?

Today I went to a second-hand Book Fair and while browsing the picture books, Samuel's Kisses by Karen Collum and Serena Geddes caught my eye. It is a book I have read to my preschool classes many times and their comments about Samuel's behaviour always makes me smile. Samuel sends kisses to bystanders while out shopping with his mother. We talk about what it means to 'blow a kiss' and how these people feel. I ask the students who they would like to blow a kiss to and we do it. Everyone is happy!

The young students I teach go a bit silly when someone mentions 'kissing'. They say they don't like being kissed, but secretly they do. Maura Finn's Oh, So Many Kisses  differentiates the type of kisses there might be...a shy kiss, a bold kiss. A warm kiss, and a cold kiss... There are oh, so many kisses! Can you catch them all?

As Fathers Day approaches Kisses for Daddy  is always popular with my preschoolers. They laugh at the child's antics but love the ending...when a child's bedtime routine is transformed into a delightful game, Daddy imagines all the different sorts of kisses that other animal babies give their dads.

No More Kissing! by Emma Chichester Clark is a perfect read for children who do not like kissing... Momo doesn't approve of kissing. He especially doesn't like being kissed. So he sets out on a campaign to stop it. But then his brand new baby brother arrives.

Zou and the Box of Kisses is ideal when children are faced with being separated from their parents ... Zou is preparing to leave for a school camp. He doesn’t want to seem like a baby, but he knows that he will miss all his daily kisses: the bedtime kisses, the morning kisses, the no-reason-at-all kisses . . . But Zou needn’t worry. Mum and Dad have a solution. They make dozens of paper kisses and put them in a box for Zou to use whenever he feels a bit lonely.

So many good books to get this topic going...and it should be a fun celebration!

Look at the animals kissing and smile!