Even the temperature close to zero did not prevent Milica and Bratislava from spending 35 minutes kissing in Vrnjačka Banja.
They won first prize in a kissing contest in February.
"We were shivering from the cold, but it was beautiful. An indescribable experience," recalls 19-year-old Milica Janić from Blac to the BBC in Serbian.
Warm feelings despite the cold can be explained by the beneficial effects of kissing on health and the body.
During such an exchange of tenderness, certain hormones and neurotransmitters - molecules that transmit electrical signals between neurons and cells - are secreted in the body and brain, says Cheryl Kirschenbaum, biologist and author of the book The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Tell Us.
"They encourage positive emotions, and besides, kissing makes us feel loved, comfortable and safe," explains Kirschenbaum, a researcher at the American University of Michigan, for the BBC in Serbian.
Therefore, whether it is a kiss on the cheek or the well-known "French" variant,
Maybe that's why the kiss got its own International Day, which is celebrated on July 6.
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Even though it's kissing peculiar only to humans, however, is not a practice in all cultures around the world.
Prema research According to William Jankoviak, professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, kissing with the lips is present in less than half of the communities.
Out of 168 cultures around the world, only 46 percent of them kiss in a romantic sense.
All the benefits of kissing
Although Milica and Bratislav happened to pass by the place where the kissing competition is held, they immediately decided to apply.
At that time, they were only in a relationship for two months, and today they say that it helped them strengthen their relationship.
"Until then, no one knew we were together, except our parents.
"But the news of our victory soon even reached my aunt in Dubai," says Milica with a laugh.
Bratislav adds that after the victory, all their friends called them in turn.
They admit that they had a little nervousness because of the large number of cameras, but now they look at it as a nice memory.
"Five months later, we feel equally good when we do it," says 25-year-old Bratislav from Leskovac.
And that we should kiss even more, she stated earlier to the BBC Lorraine McGinley, Relationship Therapist.
"The more we kiss, the better we feel.
"It expresses passion, intimacy, desire for a partner and how much we love them," McGinley said.
He adds that kissing stimulates the secretion of "hormones of happiness", i.e. dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin.
In addition, he states that this kind of display of love:
- strengthens the immune system
- encourages a feeling of attachment and affection to the partner
- makes you more satisfied with the relationship
- has a positive effect on self-confidence
- reduces the secretion of the hormone cortisol, which causes stress and anxiety
- leads to the expansion of blood vessels, which reduces blood pressure, and consequently prevents headaches
But that is not all.
Research conducted in 2009. it has been shown that kissing improves heart health by lowering cholesterol.
Thus, the risk of getting heart disease or stroke is lower.
Also, during the ten second kiss, exchange partners of about 80 million bacteria, which strengthens the immune system.
In this way, prevents tooth decay, due to increased secretion of saliva and production of enzymes that clean the mouth.
Last but not least data, especially for those who do not like to train, is that a passionate kiss can burn from two to 26 calories, depending on the duration.
Why we kiss:
How did people start kissing?
Whether you've experienced movies or kisses so horrible you want to forget them, you're not alone. People have been kissing for thousands of years.
The oldest written evidence about a behavior similar to kissing was found in India and dates back to 1500 BC.
But a much older testimony is a depiction of a couple during sexual intercourse touching their lips.
It was discovered carved on the wall of a cave near Bethlehem, a city ten kilometers from Jerusalem, and dates back to 9000 BC.
There are several theories as to why people started kissing.
One of them is that it is born to babies that they like a touch on the lips.
From the breastfeeding period onwards, we associate lips with positive stimuli.
There is also an assumption, albeit not a very pleasant one, that we like kissing because during evolution mothers chewed food and transferred it to the child's mouth.
Taj procedure still used by our relatives, the monkeys.
Fortunately, we now have baby food.
Second, our lips are very sensitive.
In fact, they are one of the few very sensitive parts of the body that we do not cover with clothes.
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Kissing on the lips is a behavior almost exclusively characteristic of humans.
It is assumed that animals do not kiss because they have a far more developed sense of smell than humans.
Therefore, it is possible that kissing has a purpose in evolution as well.
Only when we get close can we smell another person's scent, researchers at Oxford University have concluded.
Kissing is one of the ways we choose a partner, precisely because of the smell, said doctor Rafael Vlodarski, one of the contributors to the research, for the BBC.
"People find the scent of someone who is genetically compatible with them more attractive than someone who is not.
"I think it's our biological need to be so close and intimate with someone," says Vlodarski.
Biologist Cheryl Kirschenbaum explains that similar behavior is found throughout the animal kingdom.
"That being said, our species has probably been converging like this for as long as we've existed on planet Earth," he says.
How does kissing differ in other cultures?
The widely known Eskimo kiss is just one example of how this act varies around the world.
Kirshenbaum explains that when discussing human behavior, it is often considered whether something is innate or conditioned by the environment in which we grow up.
"However, kissing is an example of our nature being in harmony with our environment.
"We have an instinctive desire to connect with someone like this, but how we do that depends on the culture we were born into and our experiences," explains Kirschenbaum.
In some cultures, kissing in public is normal, while in some it is forbidden, she reminds.
Kisses also differ by country and community.
"There is a Malay kiss, where the woman would crouch down and the man would lean over her and they would have a quick sniff.
"The strangest custom I came across during my research is on the Trobian Islands.
"With them, the partners sit opposite each other when they are intimate and bite their eyelashes," Kirschenbaum describes.
Such a kiss implies great trust because the partners are very close.
"All types of kisses have the same purpose - to bring us closer to our loved ones," he says.
Kissing is sometimes avoided.
"Because of disease, even before we knew about germ transmission, it was clear that we could do certain things to avoid getting infected.
"Also, some rulers forbade kissing because they thought it was a privilege that people shouldn't have," says Kirschenbaum.
But he adds that kissing, despite prohibitions, diseases and the plague, always returned to the big door.
So Milica and Bratislav will return to the kissing competition again next year.
"We're going to win first place again," says Bratislav confidently.
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