“Chin chin,” or if spelled according to Italian orthography “cin cin,” is an Italian toast. Both sides of my family (from different parts of Italy) toasted with this, along with clinking glasses. I don’t know what it means, it must be short for something as “cin” is not a word in Italian so far as I know.
This is a northern thing; southerners use “cent’anni,” “a hundred years,” as in “may you live to be…”. Clinking glasses is also a thing for the Americans of southern Italian extraction who use this toast.
There are a lot of stories about “why is this done” - I suspect that they can’t all be true at the same time.
And customs that start for a certain reason don’t always continue for the same reason they started - something can become a fad or status symbol simply because someone saw someone else do it, and from then on, the reason becomes “Because that’s the way it’s always been done!” (Even if “always” means “since yesterday”. :))
I have read it described as a gesture substituting for the older ritual of passing a single big cup around and all drinking from the same one. True? False? How should I know, we’ve just always done it this way!
I’m sure it must be. It seemed to me in the prior posts that nobody knew this was a common Italian toast, nor that it would be spelled without an “h”. Sorry to have confused anyone.
Alcohol is prohibited, and you should never request it.
If you wish to honor those present, say something such as, “We would like to extend our best wishes to …” Egyptian Toasts
Toasts are not common. South African Toasts
For a toast, South Africans raise their glasses and say “Cheers!” On less formal occasions, they sometimes clink their glasses together and say “Chin Chin.”
… Indonesian Toasts
Since 90% of Indonesians are Muslims, alcohol will not be served. If your host happens to be Indonesian of Chinese heritage and not Muslim, alcohol may be served. There is no tradition for toasting with alcohol.
It’s not a toast per se, it’s just an onomatopoeia used to replace an actual toast. “I should say something like ‘to your health’ or whatever but don’t feel like doing that when it’s going to be drowned by the sound of a bunch of clinking glasses.”
Neither cin in Italian nor chin in Spanish, Catalan, Galego or French mean jackshit by themselves. That chin happens to mean something in English is a coincidence.
