This is not the day for garlic on your pizza, or telling everyone about your raging case of mononucleosis. Today, June 6, is International Kissing Day. A holiday you probably shouldn't celebrate without asking the person whose mouth you're closing in on whether he or she's celebrating too. Not a one-way street, International Kissing Day.

Like all holidays worth their weight, this one can be traced back to a press relations office: legend has it a dental insurance company in the UK dreamed the idea up. No more information exists on this crafty corp -- its name, its other wacky marketing schemes (Worldwide Make Sure Your Dental Insurance Is Up-To-Date Because It Is Important, No Matter How Secondary It Might Seem To Other Forms Of Insurance Day? We need that day!), all a mystery. It's safe to say International Kissing Day is that company's greatest achievement.

From such shadowy origins, the day has gone on to inspire the United Nations, who made it an official holiday some 20 years ago, as well as very important kissing scholars, whose annual essays include such soaring closing proclamations as "it is clearly right to view the mouth-on-mouth kiss not just as a preliminary to genital sex but as an erotic end in itself."

To honor this king among PG erotic ends, we've pulled out the best of our mouth-to-mouth content from throughout the year. The first, which you can find at the top of this post, is a video mashup of some of the greatest movie make-outs of all time -- because everyone knows kissing is better when there's a director yelling out instructions. And below, a slideshow of famous public kisses, which are often no more spontaneous than the ones in the movies (as explained in that one exhaustive Kissing Day essay), but still take our breath away, like a strong punch to the kisser. Enjoy, and happy smooches!

CLICK through for the most iconic public kisses:

V-J Day Kiss
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The 1945 issue of Life that published this Alfred Eisenstaedt photo read: "In New York's Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers." That white-clad girl was apparently Edith Shain, a nurse who went to Times Square to join in celebrating Japan's surrender and the eventual end of World War II.
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