Original salutation
The original Kenpo salutation dates back to the boxer rebellion in China. At that time, the salutation was used as a gesture to show that you where one of the individuals fighting to bring back the Ming dynasty. The left hand over right fist represented the sun and the moon, which in Chinese characters formed the symbol of the Ming dynasty.
However, the salutation as executed today by American Kenpo practitioners is longer than the original and now only represents a linkage to its past heritage of Kenpo. The reason the modern day salutation is longer than the original is that SGM Parker added a "new" series of maneuvers to the end of the original salutation. This change was to represent a merging of the modern martial arts with those of the past.
'new' addition to salutation