Masonic handshake

A Masonic handshake is a handshake that is used as a form of recognition between two Freemasons.

The Freemasons have at least 12 known universal secret handshakes that were implemented in their society, however, there are believed to be many more unrecorded masonic secret handshakes.^[1] The secretiveness of this society is prevalent in their greetings. The Freemasons use their set of unique handshakes to not only identify members of the society, but also to identity the different levels, classes, or castes of people within the societies. Fellow masons shake hands using secret handshakes, but within the society, apprentices and masters have distinctly different handshakes to identify one from another. Additionally, the Freemasons make use of the aforementioned secret signals to subtly indicate who is of what level. For instance, one handshake used between a master from an apprentice includes distinct touches on the knuckles.^[1]

The Masonic handshake has been featured in exaggerated form in Monty Python's Architects Sketch.

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