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When carrying a sword (which is still done on ceremonial occasions), European military forces and their cultural descendants use a two-step gesture. The sword is first raised, in the right hand, to the level of and close to the front of the neck. The blade is inclined forward and up 30 degrees from the vertical; the true edge is to the left. Then the sword is slashed downward to a position with the point close to the ground in front of the right foot. The blade is inclined down and forward with the true edge to the left. This gesture orginated in the Crusades. The hilt of a broadsword formed a cross, so if an actual Crucifix was not available, a Crusader could kiss the hilt of his sword when praying, before entering battle, for oaths and vows, and so on. The lowering of the point to the ground is a traditional act of submission.
When armed with a rifle, two different levels of formality are available when saluting. The most formal method is called "present arms"; the rifle is brought to the vertical, muzzle up, in front of center of the chest with the trigger away from the body. The hands hold the stock close to the positions they would have if the rifle were being fired, though the trigger is not touched. Less formal salutes include the "order arms salute" and the "shoulder arms salutes." These are most often given by a sentry to a low-ranking superior who does not rate the full "present arms" salute. In the "order arms salute," the rifle rests on its butt by the sentry's right foot, held near the muzzle by the sentry's right hand, and does not move. The sentry brings his flattened left hand across his body and touches the rifle near its muzzle. When the rifle is being carried on the shoulder, a similar gesture is used in which the flattened free hand is brought across the body to touch the rifle near the rear of the receiver.
The custom of firing cannon salutes originated in the British Royal Navy. When a cannon was fired, it partially disarmed the ship, so firing a cannon needlessly showed respect and trust. The British, being the dominant naval power, compelled the ships of weaker nations to make the first salute. At first ships were required to fire seven guns, and forts, with their more numerous guns and a larger supply of gunpowder, to fire twenty-one times. Later, as the quality of gunpowder improved, the British increased the number of shots required from ships to match the forts.
As naval customs evolved, the 21-gun salute came to be reserved for heads of states, and lower numbers of guns were used to salute lower ranking officials.
Aerial salutes by aircraft, primarily displayed during funerals, began with simple fly-overs during World War I and have evolved into the missing man formation, where either a formation of aircraft is conspicuously missing an element, or where a single plane abruptly leaves a formation.
The rules of saluting are as follows:
It is a widely-believed myth that in the United States military all personnel are required to initiate a salute to a Medal of Honor recipient, regardless of rank. Nothing in United States military regulations relates specifically to the Medal of Honor except for its order of precedence on the uniform. Custom, however, does dictate that a general should salute a private if the private has the Medal of Honor.
In the 1984 movie 1984 (though not the novel), the proles are seen at a frenzied "Two Minute Hate" waving both clenched fists overhead with their wrists crossed. The power that would ordinarily be shown by the clenched fists is undercut by the wrists being held as if bound. A very similar gesture is seen in Pink Floyd's The Wall, but there the wrists are repeatedly banged together -- an expression more powerful than seen in 1984 but still frustrated.
In the television series " The Prisoner", inhabitants of The Village make a significant gesture of farewell: each forms a ring of right thumb and index finger while extending the other three fingers and looks through that ring with the right eye. He then lowers his hand toward his companion as if handing him something, while saying "be seeing you." This gesture takes its significance from the surveillance ubiquitous in The Village.
In the Jackie Chan movie Shanghai Noon, Chinese palace guards perform a bow in which they flip their long sleeves down to cover their hands, drop to their right knees, use their left hands steady their sheathed swords or place them on their left thighs, and place their right palms on the floor in front of them while bowing their heads. This obeisance may be based on historical practice.
In Star Trek, the Vulcans salute by showing their right palms while keeping their middle and index and their little and ring fingers together. Leonard Nimoy based this salute on a Jewish gesture in which the hand approximates the shape of the Hebrew letter shin, the first letter in Shaddai, a name for the Almighty.
In Futurama (TV series), Zapp Brannigan salutes by rasing his right hand clenched in a fist face down up to his heart, then extended face down up to his right eyebrow (as in a United States military salute), then extending the arm in a horizontal arc, as if flying away. All three parts are done in a smooth motion without pausing between them.
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