The answer to this question is not as simple as it seems. Washing hands has at least two histories: one related to religious and cultural traditions dating back to ancient times, and another with the scientific awareness of the importance of hygiene for health, which only occurred in the 19th century.

Ancient Traditions: Rituals of Purity

The earliest evidence of hand washing is not related to medicine but to religious rituals. In the cultures of Ancient Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt, ritual washing was an important part of everyday life. For example, recipes for soap were found on clay tablets in Mesopotamia, and an ancient Egyptian papyrus (about 1500 BCE) describes compositions for cleansing.

In the ancient world, especially in Ancient Rome, hygiene was at a high level. Wealthy Romans washed their hands before meals, while slaves poured water on them from pitchers. Aromatic vinegar was often added to the water for disinfection. However, this was more a norm for the affluent classes rather than a widespread practice.

Medieval Times: A Step Back and Traditions

In medieval Europe, public baths existed, but often hand washing before meals was a collective procedure. In wealthy homes, guests were served water for hand washing in one basin, which was not changed between guests, making it more a formality than real cleansing.

In Russia and the Slavic lands, the tradition of hand washing before meals was established culturally. There were even special hand basins that hung in almost every home, and people bathed more often in baths than in Europe, as noted by foreign travelers.

Scientific Revolution: Semmelweis and the Discovery

A key moment in the history of hand washing came in 1847. The Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis, working at the Vienna General Hospital, found that the mortality rate from \"childbed fever\" in the ward where doctors worked was significantly higher than in the ward where midwives worked.

He linked this to the fact that doctors often came to the maternity ward after autopsies, without washing their hands. Semmelweis proposed treating hands with lime chlorinated solution, and the mortality rate in his ward dropped by 90% in one year.

Unfortunately, the medical community of that time did not accept Semmelweis's discovery, as the theory of microorganisms was not yet known. The idea that diseases are caused by microorganisms was later proven by Louis Pasteur, and the practical benefits of hand washing for surgery were persuasively demonstrated by the English surgeon Joseph Lister in the 1860s.

20th Century: Hygiene Becomes a Norm

Hand washing became widely prevalent already in the 20th century. In the Soviet Union, hygiene was elevated to a cult — children were taught to wash their hands before meals and after the toilet, and corresponding posters hung in canteens. In other countries, hygienic norms also gradually became accepted.

Conclusion

Thus, people have been washing their hands before meals since ancient times, but for them it was more a ritual or an expression of personal neatness. As a scientifically justified medical practice preventing the spread of infections, hand washing began to be used only in the middle of the 19th century, thanks to the discovery of Ignaz Semmelweis. Hand washing before meals became an obligatory habit for most people only in the 20th century.

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