Is there any sight more magical than a high five? It's not only special because it's a gesture that gives you recognition for a job well done but also because you can use it to give others a hearty congratulations as well.
Because of all that, it's hard to find someone who doesn't appreciate a nice, solid high five after doing something epic. The high five is one of the most widely used gestures to signal celebration today.
The high five is so beloved in our society that it's no wonder there's a whole day devoted to celebrating the most celebratory of hand gestures. April 16, 2015 is this year's National High Five Day, and the appropriate way to celebrate would obviously be to spend the day high-fiving everyone you see. You'll feel good, they'll feel good. It's a win-win for everyone involved.
But did you ever stop to think where the high five actually came from? Has it been around since the dawn of time?
The high five is actually a fairly recent invention. Well, it probably is. As with most customs that are a part of our culture today, the origins of the high five are a bit murky. However, the history of the high five is also quite the sad story.
The low five had been a part of African American culture since at least World War II, according to a 2011 history of the high five from ESPN The Magazine. No one has really been able to pinpoint exactly when, where and how the high five started, although the consensus seems to be that the hand gesture began in sports. Magic Johnson once said that he invented the high five during his Michigan State days. Some have also said the high five originated in women's volleyball in the 1960s.
However, there are two origin stories of the high five that seem to be the most widely trusted. One is that Glenn Burke, a young outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the late 1970s, held his hand up to his teammate Dusty Baker after he hit his 30th home run during the last day of the regular season, and the leftfielder spontaneously smacked it, according to ESPN The Magazine. Burke then hit his first Major League home run, and Baker returned the high five, which soon caught on with the rest of the world.
Burke retired from Major League Baseball in 1980, but during his career, he had a big secret. Burke was gay, and rumors about his sexuality surrounded him, so much so that the 2010 TV documentary Out: The Glenn Burke Story said that Dodgers executives pressured Burke to get married. Amidst speculation about his sexuality, Burke was suddenly traded to the Oakland A's, where he was ostracized. Burke was then demoted to the Minor League where he played just 25 games before retiring from baseball at the age of 27.
After his baseball career ended, Burke moved to San Francisco's Castro district, where he was happily living life for a short time before he experienced an avalanche of problems. He struggled with drug addiction, suffered injuries after being hit by a car and went to prison. Sadly, Burke was diagnosed with HIV in 1993, and he passed away from complications from the disease on May 30, 1995.
Though Burke received a lot of notoriety for inventing the high five, some people believe another couple of men invented the gesture around the same time as the Dodger but in a different sport altogether. University of Louisville forward Derek Smith initiated a high five with his teammate Wiley Brown during a basketball practice during the 1978-1979 season. "He just said, 'Give it up high,'" Brown said in a 2013 interview with The Horizon. "Remember, you're talking about one 6' 8" guy and another 6' 8" guy. Why are we gonna do low fives?" Highlight reels of the season show the team high-fiving, which may have been some of the first high fives broadcast to living rooms across America.
So will we ever know who truly invented the high five? Unfortunately, probably not. As PEOPLE points out, Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 French New Wave film Breathless featured something resembling a high five.
It's likely that people have been doing the high five for centuries without even knowing it. Maybe cavemen high-fived after discovering fire. Or Pope Julius II said "Gimme five" to Michelangelo after he finished painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Or the founding fathers could have done a big round of high fives after signing the Declaration of Independence. Who knows? But one thing is for sure: The high five has and always will be the ultimate way to celebrate.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page
