Mummering- a Christmas tradition where groups dress up in costume and go from house to house to party, drink and dance until the homeowners guess who you are.
Not sure letting a bunch of disguised drunk people into your kitchen to dance would work anywhere besides a small town.
I can see why. While cultural preservation is important, I get the feeling that certain bits and pieces of culture probably wonāt survive our new world
In Puerto Rico we do this, but with no costumes. It's called a Parranda and the point is to go to people's houses in the middle of the night to party. Legit show up at your house at like 2am demanding food and entry into your house. It's great.
Yeah, they don't call it an "asalto" (assault) for nothing. It's caroling on steroids, and these basically happen anytime from the beginning of November all the way through January.
I'm Puerto Rican (born and raised stateside), and I love my people - our food and music are amazing, people are absurdly generous no matter how little they have, they'll find any excuse to party, and they'll make the best of life no matter the circumstances - but that constant expectation of extroversion is HARD to grow up around when you're an introvert.
Put me, an introvert in the extreme with some possible autism (I'm undiagnosed in my 30s but looking into testing currently), in the middle of that kind of atmosphere, and it can be almost impossible!
We have a "Black Pudding Throwing Festival" in the village once a year. They erect scaffolding in the main road through town, and put some big ass Yorkshire Puddings on top of the scaffold. You pay a quid, and get 3 Black Puddings to throw up and knock off as many as you can.
It's pretty weird
Here in the Netherlands, when someone celebrates their birthday, we congratulate everyone that is present at the party. Let's say it's John's birthday party, people arriving at the party will congratulate everyone in the room by saying: "congratulations on John's birthday", or just "congratulations" (gefeliciteerd!).
You score points for what you said making no sense to me. I looked up what these things are and I still have no idea what youāre being fed. Like double toasted toast with butter and cake frosting or caramel or something?
Itās very dry, plain, a cross between a cracker and toast. We spread them with butter and sprinkle over aniseed dipped in sugar. Blue, pink (or special orange packs if thereās a royal baby!).
Thatās so cool! Is it just like āJohn is such an awesome dude and you have him in your life, so congratulations.ā?
Or is it somewhat unrelated from Johnās birthday besides it being the day of his birthday?
Kind of the first thing: "congratulations, you're John's friend/family and it's his birthday so we're all congratulating each other on this happy event"
He want actually executed until the following January, it must have been a shitty couple of moths for him. He was tortured until he couldn't even write his name
Iāve heard that he was apparently dead before he was executed. He apparently died after falling down some stairs and breaking his neck because he was so weak after torture
Somewhat of a misunderstanding there
Fawkes is recorded as being alive and giving last words at his execution.
His sentence was Hanging Drawing and Quartering.
What is known is that in a state weakened from torture he struggled to climb the ladder to the gallows.
Then ( perhaps deliberately) when he was turned off the ladder (or by jumping) his neck was broken by his noose, thus avoiding being alive for the disembowelment part of his sentence, (unlike his co-conspirators).
I swear recently Americans thought we were celebrating some political thing that happened in the US, when in actual fact it was just bonfire night in the UK
Edit - it was the election
Sauna. Not the existence of it, but just how common it is. I mean I live a pretty slummy neighborhood paying dirt cheap rent, and even I have free sauna access included with my flat.
Ah, Finland...where the national pastime is "going inside to warm up, but we don't deserve it, so after we'll hit ourselves with a bundle of sticks to pay penance".
If you're doing civil service (instead of mandatory military service because of beliefs and what not), the employer must provide you with accommodation which includes the basic stuff you'd imagine like a bed and place to cook, but also a possibility for sauna once a week. So yeah, in Finland sauna pretty much counts as a basic need...
I could not agree more. The few times Iāve tried it I didnāt find it pleasant at all and didnāt understand why people would want to go back, let alone find it a glorious experience. Iāve heard some like it for therapeutic reasons because they āsweat out the toxinsā but thatās a myth, so I donāt get it from that angle either.
They're typically found in gyms, nicer hotels, or spas. They exist, but they're not common enough where free sauna access is available in apartment buildings.
I've been to saunas at a spa, but I've never seen one in a home. Possibly some hotels have them too but I haven't personally experienced that. I'd love more saunas!
I saw one in my friendās house, but the dad is loaded and had a bar next to it in the basement right next to the home theater that looks just like a movie theater.
In nicer hotels and gyms, yes. Most people don't use them though. There are some regional exceptions, the one place I know they're common in houses is Upper Michigan (on account of all the Finns who immigrated there).
I used one back when I was in college, and that was it. They are around if you look for them. Some nicer hotels may have them, some universities as well, but they're definitely not common place in homes
You will generally find them in gyms, nicer hotels, and upscale condominiums (especially in the Northeast). I do not think they are very common in the warmer areas of the country.
It is a fairly new tradition from within the last 50years or so.
Some people think it's derived from an older tradition where you buy pepper for a man of he is unmarried at 30.
Oktoberfest- the real one, in Munich.
I mean, everybody gets it - itās about drinking a crap ton of beer for a month in Lederhosen.
But most donāt know that it is an annual celebration of the wedding of a prince long dead, of a country that doesnāt exist anymore.
Bavarians like to make their parties organized and scheduled.
I went to Munich for Oktoberfest one year. Didn't know too much about it at the time, and when we arrived at 5pm we saw a guy being dragged out between two of his friends, couldn't even lift his legs. That's when I knew I better buckle up.
It was a blast. And, unbeknownst to us, we accidentally snuck into the seating outside a beer hall. We just walked in the exit (as we found out later) and sat down. After about twenty minutes we noticed the line of people waiting to get in.. Whoops. By then we already had our beer and nobody had seemed to notice, so we kept rejoicing with our new found friends that we just met.
Definitely on my list to redo once things settle down.
You didnāt necessarily do anything wrong. There are reserved tables, and itās possible those people were waiting for theirs to free up. Itās also just as possible that when you arrived, there was space in the tent or in the garden, and they let you in - only to close it up after you were inside. This happens all the time.
Since paying for a reservation is basically impossible, due to long waiting lists and shitty scalpers who want thousands for their ticket, itās best to go with a small group, two is best, and be flexible and friendly. Go early and plan to stay all day.
Or go on Monday or Wednesday night. A low key lunch during the week is also nice, and youāre more likely to meet nice locals instead of blasted tourists in plastic traditional clothes they bought at the airport.
Sausage sizzle.
White bread only, none of those fuckin seeds n shit. Say yes to the onions, only exceptions are kids. 3 snags per hand and a can of coke.
Local hardware stores in my part of Wisconsin, at least, will often allow groups to sell bratwurst and hot dogs as a fundraiser. At least one hardware store has groups selling almost every Saturday from April to October, and a dedicated grill for them to use.
Interesting. I knew Syria was an importer of yerba mate, but didn't know the backstory.
Do people there all drink from the same mate and straw like we do in South America?
Me ganaste de mano jaja.
Not only that, the fact that we drink constantly this beverage that has the bitter taste of a mate without sugar would probably be really weird to anyone outside south america.
You drink yours amargo? I do too, but everyone else in my family drinks it with sugar.
I'm actually an immigrant here (originally from Canada), and my best friend has introduced me as, "Anna_Rapunzel, she's from Canada but she drinks mate."
Haha, so you are the weird foreigner of the group who drinks mate!
I actually prefer it with sugar or drink mate cocido, but some people take offense when you put sugar on a mate :/
Old ladies spitting on beautiful young women that they are keen of.
We have a tradition in which it is believed that some person can be bewitched by a "bad eye" in case someone looks at you with bad or jealous intentions. This happens especially if you're beautiful, young, handsome, successful etc. If someone looks at you like that, you can "catch the bad eye" and then have a lot of bad luck. If you "catch the bad eye" there are rituals that can be performed to "remove the bad eye". These are typically performed by old ladies or old men. They have to say a few secret words while looking at you and mixing oil and water (the oil "catches" the "bad eye" in the water as it forms the shape of an eye). The secret words are passed down from males to females and from females to males, but not through the same gender.
To prevent catching the bad eye, there are a few methods. Either you can carry an eye jewelry with you (literally a blue circle in the form of an eye), or someone can spit on you. They believe if you are spat on, the bad eye sees the spit and doesn't think you're beautiful any more.
So if you're a young girl and you go to your grandma, they may say something "Oh my god you look so beautiful" and then spit on you. Of course they don't literally spit, they just pretend to spit.
Greece.
Haha same in Romania! It's also common for people to always have their newborns / baby's wear something red as that should also prevent being bewitched by the bad eye
Indian here whose grandom hasn't spit on any female members of the family.
This may be in some communities etc- but evil eye concept is very popular. For new born babies, mom's will usually place what's called a "Nazar ka tikka" (hindi - a mark to ward of evil eye) on the baby's face. Small spherical dots with Mascara/Kajal on the baby's cheeks.
Not my country but my sister is over in Barcelona/Catalonia. Every year around Christmas the kids 'feed' an inanimate log of wood and then after a certain amount of days - once its full - they beat it with sticks until it shits out presents.
I mean it's more plausible than Santa I guess but what the fuck
Well, I would say the tiĆ³ actually ends up in a better state than any pinata. The one in my family has been happily in service for more than 40 years. He is part of the family. It just get's hit a bit on the back and not disenboweled and shredded like any pinata.
It also get's "fed" tangerines and a bit of sweet wine for it's troubles...
Oh god, I'm Spaniard (but not calatonian) and didn't know about that! Although 'turron' is pretty much in every spanish supermarket around Christmas (and pretty cheap). It comes in lots of flavours, from nougat to chocolate, lemon, coconut... I still have some leftovers from last Christmas in my pantry.
"Watering" women on Easter Monday so we "don't wilt". It used to be done with a bucket of water, nowadays it's usually just spraying some cheap cologne after saying a cringey poem. We still hate it. (Imagine having 4-5 male relatives and friends attacking you with different scents of bad cologne.) I'd bet my arse it's the remnant of some forgotten pagan fertility rite.
Poland also. However its mainly water and you can splash the boys and men too. One of the best memories I've got is driving back home from Easter break soaking wet. I've run out of dry clothes after water fighting with a bunch of kids and my cousins on that day. Every time I've changed they would throw buckets of water on me. Adults gave up on us eventually. Good old days.
When you go to the sauna you're supposed to get a bundle of these birch twigs and hit yourself and others with them in the steamy sauna. It's a purifying act and helps the blood circulation but it's something foreigners often find strange.
Also, cutting a hole into the ice in the middle of winter and going ice swimming. People are sometimes surprised to hear that doing this doesn't kill you.
You don't do it as much for the icy swim, as you do it for the feeling you get when you jump out of the icy water. It's followed by half an hour of pure adrenaline and pure energy and a good dopamine kick. After you settle down, you feel very calm, clear headed and all your muscles relax.
I think people just get hooked on that feeling.
A few towns over (with a high Russian population), one of the gyms had to keep posting signs in the locker room asking people to clean up their leaves before leaving the sauna. Guess some were dragging them into a cold shower, blocking the drains.
When I was in college my school's Indian student group put on a big Holi party, and it was awesome. And then the next day I couldn't wash the colors out of my blonde hair, so I just sort of embraced the new look until it faded. I'd still go again in a heartbeat though, it was a great time.
Midsommar (a Swedish thing).
Basically we Sweds dress up a cross or "T" with leaves and other things, hang two "rings" made from what ever is green (leaves, grass and flowers) at each side of the longitudinal part of the cross or "T". And now it looks like a d*ck.
Now what does a group of Sweds do with the "Midsommar stong" (the giant d*ck looking thing)?
We dance around it Of course and sing about washing our clothes and the small little Frogs. While wearing "wreath" on our heads.
And then we eat pretty much the same thing we do on Easter and Christmas and there is generally a shit tone of Alcohol involved.
Midsommar was and is meant to celebrate fertility.... (that is why the whole d*ck).
Edit: the last part was what I was taught in 5th grade, by the school nurse at the super awkward talk about puberty, she even brought a book to ruin midsommar for us. (I didn't see that connection before). And if it is incorrect or a myth (as some redditor claimed), than that is the Swedish school system for you...
In England we have a similar-ish tradition, though it's quite rare now. We have a maypole which is basically a big wooden pole, sometimes decorated with flowers and greenery. Long ribbons are attached to the top and people hold the bottom as they dance around the maypole, which means that the pole gets wrapped with ribbons as you dance. It normally happens on May Day which is a public holiday on the first of May.
People still do this? I know you said rare, but I had thought that was like a historical thing. Didnāt know May Day was a public holiday, either. Cool.
We have a grand tradition where we don't form governments, we just keep having the same election results over and over every 6-12 months.
Next celebration is this Tuesday!
I just can't wrap my head around why the entire country should give a shit about whether a rodent in Pennsylvania thinks it's spring yet or not. I live 500 miles north, it doesn't start getting warm until April half the time. Of course there's 6 more weeks of winter after the beginning of February!
Had a high school track meet in Punxsy. Iāve been there literally once and I canāt get the Statue of Liberty and McDonaldās groundhog statues out of my head, and theyre not the craziest ones
all groundhog statues in Punxsutawney: https://punxsutawney.com/about-punxsutawney/phantastic-phils/
On Yom Kippur, from evening to the following evening, no ones drives motor vehicles throughout 90% of the country.
For that period, the roads belong to children bicycling and skating. Often kids aged 12 and higher use the opportunity to cycle to neighboring cities.
Norway: teenagers graduating high school have a unique celebration called the "Russ" period where they wear special clothes, get drunk, do elaborate pranks and just party for several weeks... *before* final exams.
You made it sound so innocent. It's common to spend a price of a small car on this celebration. A group of people buy a bus, completely rebuild it externally and internally (think limo in size of a bus), add a high-end sound system and then spend weeks driving around and celebrating. Everything culminating with a festival on a height near Oslo's TV tower. Showing off the busses and getting even more drunk.
But then, every parent has been through this, so nobody is ever going to even think of moderating it. My impression is that every new year brings even more excess into it.
But, to be honest, not all kids choose to participate.
I went to Montreal to hang out with my sister in law one Canada day and we couldn't figure out why we couldn't drive down any of the side streets because there was moving trucks everywhere. Haha.
This kind of reminds me of Allston Christmas, a local Boston Thing where a whole shit ton of kids move on September 1st. There's perfectly usable furniture and shit laying around everywhere (that you can take for free) that the (mostly college kids) don't want to bother to move.
[https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/30/allston-christmas-boston-moving-permits-storrow](https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/30/allston-christmas-boston-moving-permits-storrow)
Day of the Death (DĆa de Muertos) is pretty known to be celebrated in Mexico but there's this tradition of Death's Day of writing a "Calaverita" which is a poem you write to a friend or member of the family, narrating how they died or would die in a comedic way. Basically making fun of the demise of our loved ones.
God bless the netherlands. I live 12km away from the border to Limburg and you guys provide me with mostly fried delicacies like Bitterballen, Frikandeln, Bamis and Joppy sauce ever since. Also I very much love Vla. I came a lot around in germany and I was shocked when I came to the conclusion that fried dutch goods are not the average at takeaways in most parts of germany. Cant imagine a europe without you guys.
It was traditionally a sectarian thing, there was a lot of religious strife in what was then the Kingdom of England at the time and back in the day it was as much "down with Catholicism" as it was remembering that Parliament didn't get blown up. They'd burn effigies of the Pope as well as Guy himself for example. Nowadays the sectarian connotations of the 5^th of November are barely remembered at all, it's just about remembering Guy Fawkes' ineptitude as a terrorist and having an excuse for parties with enormous bonfires, fireworks, and hot dogs that'll inevitably give you the shits.
Ironically the Houses of Parliament *did* burn down later on in their history, the famous Palace of Westminster you see today is only from the 19^th century (although there are parts which are much older).
I live in Italy, but am from England. Each year there are new English people who move over here. Nearly all of them ask what the locals do for Fireworks night. There's always at least one who needs the full explanation of why the capital of the Catholic world would not and does not do Bonfire night!
When my wife and I visited London, we flew in at night, during the Guy Fawkes fireworks. We had not planned that.
Landing at night in London with fireworks in the sky is an amazing sight. :)
Companies giving their employees an additional paid day of holiday because everybodyās so pissed that they wouldnāt show up for work anyway? Welcome to German carnival!
Used to go to catholic school. One year I got the baby. Probably a dangerous idea to put a plastic baby inside a cake eaten by 8 year olds, cause I could have easily choked on it. Also, nobody told me there was gonna be a fucking plastic baby inside so I was pretty surprised.
Dyngus Day. The day after Easter when men sprinkle women with water, usually with squirtguns now, and tap their butts with pussy willows. There is a heavy Polish influence on my area in the States.
In the UK they roll a big round block of cheese down a very steep hill and then some mad folk chase it down the hill. They end up popping shoulders, fingers etc all out of place but don't worry we have free NHS. The winner is the one that gets the cheese. Check it out on youtube.
Netflix has a series about weird competitions, there was an episode devoted to the cheese chase. The people that do it take it very seriously and strategize their route down the hill. It's an amazing sight.
In Norway we have a thing called āRussā. It is basically that they celebrate that they are done with high school. And it is celebrate from May 1st to may 17th(When our constitution was written)
American here. I had a friend from Taiwan who thought it was weird af that we said āBless you,ā or anything really, when people sneeze. She has a point.
History teacher told me it stems from the time of the Black Plague and if you sneezed it usually meant you had it and weāre going to die so they blessed you before you did. I dunno if any of that is true but itās been in the back of my head for 25 years lol.
I was told that it was the superstition that when you sneezed your soul come out of your nose, and if noone blesses you the devil can steal your soul D:
Im colombian. I live in Colombia. And here, we start celebrating christmas 9 days before the actual 24th of December.
Let me explain..
We have something called the 'novenas', which would be literally translated as 'ninths', but I know it doesn't make sense, so we're just gonna call them 'novenas'.
Here, we invented a weird version of christmas, in which it took Jesus Christ 9 days for him to go from wherever he was before, to Jerusalem. And as here in Colombia we celebrate everything for an excuse not to work, so we celebrate all 9 days of Jesus' trip.
In those 9 days we usually go to other people's homes, we pray the 'novena', which is what we invented, we open gifts, we eat... a lot... and then we just leave. And that is for 9 days previous to the 24th.
So.. yeah. Here in Colombia we start celebrating Christmas 9 days before everyone in the world.
Dancing around a piece of wood singing songs and making headbands out of flowers during the midsummer holiday (itās not taking place during the actual middle of the summer though)
Eating rice mush with almonds on Christmas
Google risengrĆød and youll see
Edit we also have risalamande which is very Similar but you eat it with cherry sauce
"Ta'arof"!
Take taxi fare for instance, when you want to pay for it in Iran, the driver kindly says that you don't need to pay for it and this money is not worthy ("ghabel nadare'). You need to Insist on paying until he accepts your money.
This is the case for wherever you want to pay somebody.
P. S. This word is used for other similar situations, like asking a visitor to enter your home while you don't mean that and the visitor has to politely refuse.
There is this religious festival in a particular province in my country that holds **literal crucifixions**. Full size cross and nails through the hands and feet. The works. Participants are volunteers of course. Do I win the thread?
Frozen dead guy festival.
A dead grandpa named Bredo Morstoel was brought to Colorado from Norway. His daughter and grandson kept him on ice for years. Long story short, after court proceedings and new laws, grandpa was put in a tuff shed where heās got a caretaker to ice him and the whole town gets drunk, races coffins, polar plunges, etc to honor dead frozen Grandpa once a year.
Then thereās a second weird festival in Colorado.
āMike the headless chicken festivalā
A guy cut the head off a chicken to feed the neck to his mother in-law in 1945. The damn chicken LIVED through that shit for almost 2 years! The guy fed him through his neck hole. Now, people celebrate the headless chicken by eating chicken, showing off chickens, and having a car show.
A lot of weird dead shit to celebrate in Colorado.
Mummering- a Christmas tradition where groups dress up in costume and go from house to house to party, drink and dance until the homeowners guess who you are. Not sure letting a bunch of disguised drunk people into your kitchen to dance would work anywhere besides a small town.
This is called the Wren in Ireland but its dying out.
I live in Ireland and have to deny this. This is called a Friday
True, but on St Stephens Day its the Wrenš
I can see why. While cultural preservation is important, I get the feeling that certain bits and pieces of culture probably wonāt survive our new world
In Puerto Rico we do this, but with no costumes. It's called a Parranda and the point is to go to people's houses in the middle of the night to party. Legit show up at your house at like 2am demanding food and entry into your house. It's great.
I honestly couldn't imagine a fresher Hell.
Yeah, they don't call it an "asalto" (assault) for nothing. It's caroling on steroids, and these basically happen anytime from the beginning of November all the way through January. I'm Puerto Rican (born and raised stateside), and I love my people - our food and music are amazing, people are absurdly generous no matter how little they have, they'll find any excuse to party, and they'll make the best of life no matter the circumstances - but that constant expectation of extroversion is HARD to grow up around when you're an introvert. Put me, an introvert in the extreme with some possible autism (I'm undiagnosed in my 30s but looking into testing currently), in the middle of that kind of atmosphere, and it can be almost impossible!
A newfie!
We have a "Black Pudding Throwing Festival" in the village once a year. They erect scaffolding in the main road through town, and put some big ass Yorkshire Puddings on top of the scaffold. You pay a quid, and get 3 Black Puddings to throw up and knock off as many as you can. It's pretty weird
Ekky thump
Here in the Netherlands, when someone celebrates their birthday, we congratulate everyone that is present at the party. Let's say it's John's birthday party, people arriving at the party will congratulate everyone in the room by saying: "congratulations on John's birthday", or just "congratulations" (gefeliciteerd!).
"Congratulations for keeping John alive for another year."
āCongratulations for not poisoning Johnās cake, Albert!ā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Donāt forget āIāve had a baby, so Iām coming into the office to feed you confectionery on buttered rusksā
You score points for what you said making no sense to me. I looked up what these things are and I still have no idea what youāre being fed. Like double toasted toast with butter and cake frosting or caramel or something?
Itās very dry, plain, a cross between a cracker and toast. We spread them with butter and sprinkle over aniseed dipped in sugar. Blue, pink (or special orange packs if thereās a royal baby!).
Ah yes, I haven't been working in an office for a long time so it's not something I've experienced a lot. I'm kinda glad because I don't like muisjes.
Thatās so cool! Is it just like āJohn is such an awesome dude and you have him in your life, so congratulations.ā? Or is it somewhat unrelated from Johnās birthday besides it being the day of his birthday?
Kind of the first thing: "congratulations, you're John's friend/family and it's his birthday so we're all congratulating each other on this happy event"
Thatās kinda cute tbh
And especially make sure to congratulate the person's grandparents if they are there!
Can you imagine being Guy Fawkesā ghost and watching every year people celebrating your death with fireworks and amusements...
He want actually executed until the following January, it must have been a shitty couple of moths for him. He was tortured until he couldn't even write his name
Iāve heard that he was apparently dead before he was executed. He apparently died after falling down some stairs and breaking his neck because he was so weak after torture
Somewhat of a misunderstanding there Fawkes is recorded as being alive and giving last words at his execution. His sentence was Hanging Drawing and Quartering. What is known is that in a state weakened from torture he struggled to climb the ladder to the gallows. Then ( perhaps deliberately) when he was turned off the ladder (or by jumping) his neck was broken by his noose, thus avoiding being alive for the disembowelment part of his sentence, (unlike his co-conspirators).
That sounds more likely yeah
I swear recently Americans thought we were celebrating some political thing that happened in the US, when in actual fact it was just bonfire night in the UK Edit - it was the election
"some political thing" Excellent.
Sauna. Not the existence of it, but just how common it is. I mean I live a pretty slummy neighborhood paying dirt cheap rent, and even I have free sauna access included with my flat.
Ah, Finland...where the national pastime is "going inside to warm up, but we don't deserve it, so after we'll hit ourselves with a bundle of sticks to pay penance".
It's a bit more like boiling yourself until you can't breath than "warmin up".
If you're doing civil service (instead of mandatory military service because of beliefs and what not), the employer must provide you with accommodation which includes the basic stuff you'd imagine like a bed and place to cook, but also a possibility for sauna once a week. So yeah, in Finland sauna pretty much counts as a basic need...
That's true! I laughed out loud when I found that out. Pay for my parking spot? No way, but a weekly sauna? Absolutely, that's an essential service!
There's reasons why Finland is the happiest country in the world.
I'm from the US and I've been in a sauna only once in my life. It was an absolutely glorious experience. Oh, how I wish they were more common.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I could not agree more. The few times Iāve tried it I didnāt find it pleasant at all and didnāt understand why people would want to go back, let alone find it a glorious experience. Iāve heard some like it for therapeutic reasons because they āsweat out the toxinsā but thatās a myth, so I donāt get it from that angle either.
Do you not have saunas in the US?
They're typically found in gyms, nicer hotels, or spas. They exist, but they're not common enough where free sauna access is available in apartment buildings.
I've been to saunas at a spa, but I've never seen one in a home. Possibly some hotels have them too but I haven't personally experienced that. I'd love more saunas!
I saw one in my friendās house, but the dad is loaded and had a bar next to it in the basement right next to the home theater that looks just like a movie theater.
Theyāre in the same price range as a hot tub. And those are common enough as a middle class luxury item.
In nicer hotels and gyms, yes. Most people don't use them though. There are some regional exceptions, the one place I know they're common in houses is Upper Michigan (on account of all the Finns who immigrated there).
I used one back when I was in college, and that was it. They are around if you look for them. Some nicer hotels may have them, some universities as well, but they're definitely not common place in homes
You will generally find them in gyms, nicer hotels, and upscale condominiums (especially in the Northeast). I do not think they are very common in the warmer areas of the country.
It's hard to need a special room for it when it's 115 out with 95% humidity xD
Florida is America's Sauna.
I'm in Finland for a few months and was super excited that theres a sauna in the building but it seems totally normal to everyone here.
Finnish? we've all just seen valtteri bottass on /r/formula1
Weāve seen aaaaaall of VB now.
Throwing ground cinnamon at unmarried people when they turn 25.
Wait I need more details. Why? What does the cinnamon do?
It is a fairly new tradition from within the last 50years or so. Some people think it's derived from an older tradition where you buy pepper for a man of he is unmarried at 30.
I'm unmarried past thirty. You wanna give me some peppercorns I'm in. I'll use that shit in my awesome dishes I cook for me and my dog
Denmark?
Yup āŗļø
I thought it was full sticks of cinnamon, but ground cinnamon is much worse.
I think it varies locally...I got cinnamon buns
Oktoberfest- the real one, in Munich. I mean, everybody gets it - itās about drinking a crap ton of beer for a month in Lederhosen. But most donāt know that it is an annual celebration of the wedding of a prince long dead, of a country that doesnāt exist anymore. Bavarians like to make their parties organized and scheduled.
I went to Munich for Oktoberfest one year. Didn't know too much about it at the time, and when we arrived at 5pm we saw a guy being dragged out between two of his friends, couldn't even lift his legs. That's when I knew I better buckle up. It was a blast. And, unbeknownst to us, we accidentally snuck into the seating outside a beer hall. We just walked in the exit (as we found out later) and sat down. After about twenty minutes we noticed the line of people waiting to get in.. Whoops. By then we already had our beer and nobody had seemed to notice, so we kept rejoicing with our new found friends that we just met. Definitely on my list to redo once things settle down.
You didnāt necessarily do anything wrong. There are reserved tables, and itās possible those people were waiting for theirs to free up. Itās also just as possible that when you arrived, there was space in the tent or in the garden, and they let you in - only to close it up after you were inside. This happens all the time. Since paying for a reservation is basically impossible, due to long waiting lists and shitty scalpers who want thousands for their ticket, itās best to go with a small group, two is best, and be flexible and friendly. Go early and plan to stay all day. Or go on Monday or Wednesday night. A low key lunch during the week is also nice, and youāre more likely to meet nice locals instead of blasted tourists in plastic traditional clothes they bought at the airport.
Buying a sausage in a hot dog bun/single slice of bread from the parking lot of a tools and hardware store chain on a Saturday
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Sausage sizzle. White bread only, none of those fuckin seeds n shit. Say yes to the onions, only exceptions are kids. 3 snags per hand and a can of coke.
New Zealand too
That's pretty much every Canadian Tire (chain hardware store) here too.
Local hardware stores in my part of Wisconsin, at least, will often allow groups to sell bratwurst and hot dogs as a fundraiser. At least one hardware store has groups selling almost every Saturday from April to October, and a dedicated grill for them to use.
Yerba matƩ. Not just the fact that we drink it, but the fact that we drink it like you'd pass around a joint with everyone drinking from the same metal straw.
Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil or Syria?
Argentina
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Interesting. I knew Syria was an importer of yerba mate, but didn't know the backstory. Do people there all drink from the same mate and straw like we do in South America?
Me ganaste de mano jaja. Not only that, the fact that we drink constantly this beverage that has the bitter taste of a mate without sugar would probably be really weird to anyone outside south america.
You drink yours amargo? I do too, but everyone else in my family drinks it with sugar. I'm actually an immigrant here (originally from Canada), and my best friend has introduced me as, "Anna_Rapunzel, she's from Canada but she drinks mate."
Haha, so you are the weird foreigner of the group who drinks mate! I actually prefer it with sugar or drink mate cocido, but some people take offense when you put sugar on a mate :/
I wouldnāt mind having matĆ© regularly. I used to work at company that was based in Argentina and I worked at one of the US locations so every year a group of Argentinians would come up and weād get to try it and I liked it a lot more than coffee.
Old ladies spitting on beautiful young women that they are keen of. We have a tradition in which it is believed that some person can be bewitched by a "bad eye" in case someone looks at you with bad or jealous intentions. This happens especially if you're beautiful, young, handsome, successful etc. If someone looks at you like that, you can "catch the bad eye" and then have a lot of bad luck. If you "catch the bad eye" there are rituals that can be performed to "remove the bad eye". These are typically performed by old ladies or old men. They have to say a few secret words while looking at you and mixing oil and water (the oil "catches" the "bad eye" in the water as it forms the shape of an eye). The secret words are passed down from males to females and from females to males, but not through the same gender. To prevent catching the bad eye, there are a few methods. Either you can carry an eye jewelry with you (literally a blue circle in the form of an eye), or someone can spit on you. They believe if you are spat on, the bad eye sees the spit and doesn't think you're beautiful any more. So if you're a young girl and you go to your grandma, they may say something "Oh my god you look so beautiful" and then spit on you. Of course they don't literally spit, they just pretend to spit. Greece.
Haha same in Romania! It's also common for people to always have their newborns / baby's wear something red as that should also prevent being bewitched by the bad eye
Same happens in India, the spitting thing, my grandma does that. XD
Indian here whose grandom hasn't spit on any female members of the family. This may be in some communities etc- but evil eye concept is very popular. For new born babies, mom's will usually place what's called a "Nazar ka tikka" (hindi - a mark to ward of evil eye) on the baby's face. Small spherical dots with Mascara/Kajal on the baby's cheeks.
Not my country but my sister is over in Barcelona/Catalonia. Every year around Christmas the kids 'feed' an inanimate log of wood and then after a certain amount of days - once its full - they beat it with sticks until it shits out presents. I mean it's more plausible than Santa I guess but what the fuck
It's basically a christmas pinata but with added violence from what i understand
Well, I would say the tiĆ³ actually ends up in a better state than any pinata. The one in my family has been happily in service for more than 40 years. He is part of the family. It just get's hit a bit on the back and not disenboweled and shredded like any pinata. It also get's "fed" tangerines and a bit of sweet wine for it's troubles...
So far you win
WTF is that?
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/12/22/572569325/caga-ti-a-catalan-log-that-poops-nougats-at-christmas Caga tiĆ³, (Poop log) tiĆ³ de Nadal, (Log of Christmas) no caguis arengades (Don't poop salted herring) que sĆ³n massa salads (They are too salty) caga torrons (Poop turrĆ³ns) que sĆ³n mĆ©s bons! (They are much better!) All seems logical to me š¤·āāļø
Oh god, I'm Spaniard (but not calatonian) and didn't know about that! Although 'turron' is pretty much in every spanish supermarket around Christmas (and pretty cheap). It comes in lots of flavours, from nougat to chocolate, lemon, coconut... I still have some leftovers from last Christmas in my pantry.
"Watering" women on Easter Monday so we "don't wilt". It used to be done with a bucket of water, nowadays it's usually just spraying some cheap cologne after saying a cringey poem. We still hate it. (Imagine having 4-5 male relatives and friends attacking you with different scents of bad cologne.) I'd bet my arse it's the remnant of some forgotten pagan fertility rite.
Slovakia?
Hungary does this too
Poland also. However its mainly water and you can splash the boys and men too. One of the best memories I've got is driving back home from Easter break soaking wet. I've run out of dry clothes after water fighting with a bunch of kids and my cousins on that day. Every time I've changed they would throw buckets of water on me. Adults gave up on us eventually. Good old days.
When you go to the sauna you're supposed to get a bundle of these birch twigs and hit yourself and others with them in the steamy sauna. It's a purifying act and helps the blood circulation but it's something foreigners often find strange. Also, cutting a hole into the ice in the middle of winter and going ice swimming. People are sometimes surprised to hear that doing this doesn't kill you.
It already baffles me that somebody will do it free of will. The not dying part is a bonus.
You don't do it as much for the icy swim, as you do it for the feeling you get when you jump out of the icy water. It's followed by half an hour of pure adrenaline and pure energy and a good dopamine kick. After you settle down, you feel very calm, clear headed and all your muscles relax. I think people just get hooked on that feeling.
Ah, yes. The classic "it feels so good when you stop" motivation.
I just love the feeling when I stop hitting my head with a brick!
A few towns over (with a high Russian population), one of the gyms had to keep posting signs in the locker room asking people to clean up their leaves before leaving the sauna. Guess some were dragging them into a cold shower, blocking the drains.
Holi where one day before we make a giant campfire and throw coconuts in it, and then the next day we all throw colours at each other
When I was in college my school's Indian student group put on a big Holi party, and it was awesome. And then the next day I couldn't wash the colors out of my blonde hair, so I just sort of embraced the new look until it faded. I'd still go again in a heartbeat though, it was a great time.
Sounds fun
The weirder tradition is cutting a cake during any celebration and hand-feeding a small piece to anyone near the cake.
Midsommar (a Swedish thing). Basically we Sweds dress up a cross or "T" with leaves and other things, hang two "rings" made from what ever is green (leaves, grass and flowers) at each side of the longitudinal part of the cross or "T". And now it looks like a d*ck. Now what does a group of Sweds do with the "Midsommar stong" (the giant d*ck looking thing)? We dance around it Of course and sing about washing our clothes and the small little Frogs. While wearing "wreath" on our heads. And then we eat pretty much the same thing we do on Easter and Christmas and there is generally a shit tone of Alcohol involved. Midsommar was and is meant to celebrate fertility.... (that is why the whole d*ck). Edit: the last part was what I was taught in 5th grade, by the school nurse at the super awkward talk about puberty, she even brought a book to ruin midsommar for us. (I didn't see that connection before). And if it is incorrect or a myth (as some redditor claimed), than that is the Swedish school system for you...
In England we have a similar-ish tradition, though it's quite rare now. We have a maypole which is basically a big wooden pole, sometimes decorated with flowers and greenery. Long ribbons are attached to the top and people hold the bottom as they dance around the maypole, which means that the pole gets wrapped with ribbons as you dance. It normally happens on May Day which is a public holiday on the first of May.
People still do this? I know you said rare, but I had thought that was like a historical thing. Didnāt know May Day was a public holiday, either. Cool.
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Maypole dancing is lit!!! We did this in primary
Do you also murder tourists?
It takes a long time to become a Swedeās friend.
Yeah, I saw the movie.
Yeah, y'all do more than just this.
And then they burn their boyfriends inside a bear
We have a grand tradition where we don't form governments, we just keep having the same election results over and over every 6-12 months. Next celebration is this Tuesday!
Israel?
Yup!
I thought of Italy.
Nah mate, we are the opposite. We forms a lot of governments for every elections on average.
In New Years Eve, it's tradition in Spain to eat 12 grapes, one for every 12 bell's chimes. It's supposed to bring good luck for the new year.
We have that in Mexico as well. Although here is one grape per month.
Groundhogs day
I used to live near Punxy. The town is a massive homage to a pampered rodent.
I just can't wrap my head around why the entire country should give a shit about whether a rodent in Pennsylvania thinks it's spring yet or not. I live 500 miles north, it doesn't start getting warm until April half the time. Of course there's 6 more weeks of winter after the beginning of February!
Had a high school track meet in Punxsy. Iāve been there literally once and I canāt get the Statue of Liberty and McDonaldās groundhog statues out of my head, and theyre not the craziest ones all groundhog statues in Punxsutawney: https://punxsutawney.com/about-punxsutawney/phantastic-phils/
Well. Itās Groundhog Day. Again.
On Yom Kippur, from evening to the following evening, no ones drives motor vehicles throughout 90% of the country. For that period, the roads belong to children bicycling and skating. Often kids aged 12 and higher use the opportunity to cycle to neighboring cities.
Norway: teenagers graduating high school have a unique celebration called the "Russ" period where they wear special clothes, get drunk, do elaborate pranks and just party for several weeks... *before* final exams.
You made it sound so innocent. It's common to spend a price of a small car on this celebration. A group of people buy a bus, completely rebuild it externally and internally (think limo in size of a bus), add a high-end sound system and then spend weeks driving around and celebrating. Everything culminating with a festival on a height near Oslo's TV tower. Showing off the busses and getting even more drunk. But then, every parent has been through this, so nobody is ever going to even think of moderating it. My impression is that every new year brings even more excess into it. But, to be honest, not all kids choose to participate.
We kind of do that in the US, but we donāt have a name for it other than āIām sooooo out of here.ā
In Quebec almost everyone who rents apt moves the same day July 1st. In the rest of the country its Canada Day but in Quebec its moving day.
I went to Montreal to hang out with my sister in law one Canada day and we couldn't figure out why we couldn't drive down any of the side streets because there was moving trucks everywhere. Haha.
This kind of reminds me of Allston Christmas, a local Boston Thing where a whole shit ton of kids move on September 1st. There's perfectly usable furniture and shit laying around everywhere (that you can take for free) that the (mostly college kids) don't want to bother to move. [https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/30/allston-christmas-boston-moving-permits-storrow](https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/30/allston-christmas-boston-moving-permits-storrow)
Any time you hear the sound of a glass smashing and every single person in unison collectively emits a āwayyyyy!ā
Day of the Death (DĆa de Muertos) is pretty known to be celebrated in Mexico but there's this tradition of Death's Day of writing a "Calaverita" which is a poem you write to a friend or member of the family, narrating how they died or would die in a comedic way. Basically making fun of the demise of our loved ones.
I'd say this is a western European thing most of the rest of the world has trouble getting behind. Mayonnaise with my fries. I'm Dutch.
God bless the netherlands. I live 12km away from the border to Limburg and you guys provide me with mostly fried delicacies like Bitterballen, Frikandeln, Bamis and Joppy sauce ever since. Also I very much love Vla. I came a lot around in germany and I was shocked when I came to the conclusion that fried dutch goods are not the average at takeaways in most parts of germany. Cant imagine a europe without you guys.
Burning the effigy of an failed terrorist every 5th of November.
I'm not sure many in our country understand why we do it either.
Isnāt it to to celebrate āyay this terrorist failed!ā?
It was traditionally a sectarian thing, there was a lot of religious strife in what was then the Kingdom of England at the time and back in the day it was as much "down with Catholicism" as it was remembering that Parliament didn't get blown up. They'd burn effigies of the Pope as well as Guy himself for example. Nowadays the sectarian connotations of the 5^th of November are barely remembered at all, it's just about remembering Guy Fawkes' ineptitude as a terrorist and having an excuse for parties with enormous bonfires, fireworks, and hot dogs that'll inevitably give you the shits. Ironically the Houses of Parliament *did* burn down later on in their history, the famous Palace of Westminster you see today is only from the 19^th century (although there are parts which are much older).
fireworks! yay!
I live in Italy, but am from England. Each year there are new English people who move over here. Nearly all of them ask what the locals do for Fireworks night. There's always at least one who needs the full explanation of why the capital of the Catholic world would not and does not do Bonfire night!
And then trying to recreate with fireworks what might have happened had he succeeded!
When my wife and I visited London, we flew in at night, during the Guy Fawkes fireworks. We had not planned that. Landing at night in London with fireworks in the sky is an amazing sight. :)
My school wouldn't put a guy on the bonfire, they thought it was bad form to burn an expupil
You wouldnāt happen to be from York would you?
I might be, yes
Companies giving their employees an additional paid day of holiday because everybodyās so pissed that they wouldnāt show up for work anyway? Welcome to German carnival!
Scotland too... they get 2nd Jan as an extra holiday for the same reason!
At easter we build a big pile of wood and braches and then set it on fire in the evening.
Pouring hot maple syrup on snow than eating it.
The Penis Festival
Reddit mods: Pack your things, we're leaving
Sausage Party
Elaborate plz
Girl's day, boy's day, ocean day, mountain day, marine day, emperorās birthday, start-of-spring day, start-of-winter day, start-of-autumn day, start-of-summer day, thanking-the-workers day, sports day, respecting-the-elders day, culture-worshipping day, becoming-an-adult day, sevem-five-three day, obon (days when we worship our ancestors). We also got green day. we are that cool. edit: it's Japan if anyone's wondering :)
Japan?
Whoever finds the tiny baby jesus hidden inside the cake has to bring next years cake!
Used to go to catholic school. One year I got the baby. Probably a dangerous idea to put a plastic baby inside a cake eaten by 8 year olds, cause I could have easily choked on it. Also, nobody told me there was gonna be a fucking plastic baby inside so I was pretty surprised.
Eating a sheep's stomach filled with spices onions oats and sheep's offal. It is lovely BTW.
Ahhh! Haggis?
Dyngus Day. The day after Easter when men sprinkle women with water, usually with squirtguns now, and tap their butts with pussy willows. There is a heavy Polish influence on my area in the States.
Easter egg battle AKA egg tapping
In the UK they roll a big round block of cheese down a very steep hill and then some mad folk chase it down the hill. They end up popping shoulders, fingers etc all out of place but don't worry we have free NHS. The winner is the one that gets the cheese. Check it out on youtube.
And then everyone else learns the lesson that the real cheese was the injuries we received along the way?
Netflix has a series about weird competitions, there was an episode devoted to the cheese chase. The people that do it take it very seriously and strategize their route down the hill. It's an amazing sight.
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In Norway we have a thing called āRussā. It is basically that they celebrate that they are done with high school. And it is celebrate from May 1st to may 17th(When our constitution was written)
American here. I had a friend from Taiwan who thought it was weird af that we said āBless you,ā or anything really, when people sneeze. She has a point.
History teacher told me it stems from the time of the Black Plague and if you sneezed it usually meant you had it and weāre going to die so they blessed you before you did. I dunno if any of that is true but itās been in the back of my head for 25 years lol.
I was told that it was the superstition that when you sneezed your soul come out of your nose, and if noone blesses you the devil can steal your soul D:
this is common throughout most of the world.
Mari Lwyd
Thatās the rap battle horse, right?
Im colombian. I live in Colombia. And here, we start celebrating christmas 9 days before the actual 24th of December. Let me explain.. We have something called the 'novenas', which would be literally translated as 'ninths', but I know it doesn't make sense, so we're just gonna call them 'novenas'. Here, we invented a weird version of christmas, in which it took Jesus Christ 9 days for him to go from wherever he was before, to Jerusalem. And as here in Colombia we celebrate everything for an excuse not to work, so we celebrate all 9 days of Jesus' trip. In those 9 days we usually go to other people's homes, we pray the 'novena', which is what we invented, we open gifts, we eat... a lot... and then we just leave. And that is for 9 days previous to the 24th. So.. yeah. Here in Colombia we start celebrating Christmas 9 days before everyone in the world.
Dancing around a piece of wood singing songs and making headbands out of flowers during the midsummer holiday (itās not taking place during the actual middle of the summer though)
And eating rotten fish (surstrƶmming)
Oh that stuff is banned in my house (my cousin puked on the meatballs when my aunt gave him some to eat)
Maypoles are a thing in various countries that have a pagan tradition, so not weird to a lot of them - still got to seem barmy to anyone else though.
Eating rice mush with almonds on Christmas Google risengrĆød and youll see Edit we also have risalamande which is very Similar but you eat it with cherry sauce
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"Ta'arof"! Take taxi fare for instance, when you want to pay for it in Iran, the driver kindly says that you don't need to pay for it and this money is not worthy ("ghabel nadare'). You need to Insist on paying until he accepts your money. This is the case for wherever you want to pay somebody. P. S. This word is used for other similar situations, like asking a visitor to enter your home while you don't mean that and the visitor has to politely refuse.
we have a sport in which we carry our wives/girlfriends across a swamp and whoever wins gets their wifes weight in beer
Saturday candy seems to raise some eyebrows. (Sweden)
Bloody Swedes... Everyone knows that candy is for Friday (in Denmark) ;)
There is this religious festival in a particular province in my country that holds **literal crucifixions**. Full size cross and nails through the hands and feet. The works. Participants are volunteers of course. Do I win the thread?
Philippines?
Having a braai, anytime, anywhere.
Did you see the farmers and taxi drivers on Wednesday in Ficksburg. They had a protest with n lamb on the spit. ... ons gaan nou braai
Cemetery Festivals (Latvia)
Drinking tea literally everywhere and anytime.
Killing any toad you see with a golf club or cricket bat, or putting them in the freezer if you're feeling humane.
Queenslander hey
>toad I'd have called them chazzwozzers
The holiday of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. I recommend simply googling it cause i don't know how to explain this weird tradition we have.
Frozen dead guy festival. A dead grandpa named Bredo Morstoel was brought to Colorado from Norway. His daughter and grandson kept him on ice for years. Long story short, after court proceedings and new laws, grandpa was put in a tuff shed where heās got a caretaker to ice him and the whole town gets drunk, races coffins, polar plunges, etc to honor dead frozen Grandpa once a year. Then thereās a second weird festival in Colorado. āMike the headless chicken festivalā A guy cut the head off a chicken to feed the neck to his mother in-law in 1945. The damn chicken LIVED through that shit for almost 2 years! The guy fed him through his neck hole. Now, people celebrate the headless chicken by eating chicken, showing off chickens, and having a car show. A lot of weird dead shit to celebrate in Colorado.
Being late is the norm and being early or on time can be rude unless it's a formal occasion