Not just American, Greeks are very big on hugging as well in my experience. I live in an area with a lot of greek immigrants (2nd or third generation now) and t

Not just American, Greeks are very big on hugging as well in my experience. I live in an area with a lot of greek immigrants (2nd or third generation now) and the amount of hugging feels unnatural to me because I grew up in the British tradition, a hug from my father means someone has died, a hug from my mother means we won't see each other for several months. Between me living further away from them and the family aging I think we actually hug each other more now than when I lived with them. The lack of hugging is something we're consciously not passing on to the next generation.