The coronavirus pandemic is changing typical interactions; people are forced to abandon handshakes, hugs or kisses to the cheek. However, the desire to display attention and warmth for our close ones has not disappeared. In response to the changed everyday conditions, Eurovaistinė has proposed a safe means of greeting – placing one’s hand over your heart.
Eurovaistinė board chairwoman Ingrida Damulienė says that she has noticed how the greeting is gradually gaining traction in society. “As per recommendations, I continue to work from home. Thus I meet my neighbours more often and they greet me by placing their hand over their heart. This gesture has taken root very organically and it is excellent to see it in both formal and informal environments. Placing one’s hand over your heart, even when maintaining a safe distance, brings closeness to interactions,” I. Damulienė says.
The hand over heart gesture is also taking root in pharmacies when interacting with customers. Pharmacist Miglė Kazakevičienė, who featured in a social advert, says that they already encounter customers using this greeting, the pharmacists also look to use it as well.
“We have staff, who only now returned to pharmacies since the start of quarantine, thus when meeting them, we greet them by placing a hand over our hearts. Having seen the advert on television at home, they became accustomed to it easily,” the pharmacist says.
According to M. Kazakevičienė, this greeting evokes warm feelings, the sign is deep and expressing pride. The pharmacist says that the gesture of placing one’s hand over one’s heart is more often used as a greeting and expression of thanks by older individuals, they adopt this gesture easier, however, it is beginning to spread among youths as well, clients receive the attentiveness positively.
Eurovaistinė invites everyone to join in on the initiative. You can share quarantine moments or photos with your hand over your heart to the email vardan@eurovaistine.lt.
By sending the photo, individuals confirm their or the individuals’ in the photography agreement that Eurovaistinė can make use of the photos for campaign publicity purposes.
