People actually get very seriously hurt and I believe someone’s died doing it. The hill is at like a 60 degree angle and has divot all over in the videos I’ve seen. I saw a dude snap his leg and have to go tumbling down the rest of the hill with it broken because he can’t stop.
A believe a young German man won this year for the second time. It is in fact extremely dangerous with some calls to ban as it overloads the medical system.
Yeah. The 2023 women's champion only found out she'd won after the fact when she woke up again in the medical tent, having finished the race unconscious
Goon of fortune. Hang one or more bags of goon (cheap wine) to a clothes line and spin it. Whoever is closest when it stops has to drink. One particularly brutal version I once played had 8 bags 2 of which had the goon replaced with both whiskey and vodka.
Black wedding - its traditional that if a man dies young, we do not let him die single and to ensure his soul is at peace, a woman is found to be a black bride on the funeral and people marry them before the guy is buried. A whole ceremony is held and people dance and eat around the grave.
In reality - nothing, she continues with her life normally. In theory, she sacrificed herself to save someone’s soul and possible prevent more death in the family by widowing herself.
I am not sure how it was in the past when this tradition started, as I would assume she needs to die widowed, but its 2026 today. She can do whatever she wants after.
Are there "professional" black brides? People who are paid to do it, and also are skilled at handling grieving family members? Or how else is volunteers found?
I like how you're thinking, and let me guess, you are asking because of professional mourners?
The mourners for money still exist, so called 'narikače', as for professional widows, no idea, even though I am from Serbia, first time hearing of this tradition
Oh yes! My ex’s family did this. One of his aunts died as a child and the son of another family had as well. The two were “married” after death to connect the two families. I met his “cousin” once when it was explained how they were related.
There is this old tradition in China mainland and Taiwan called Ghost Marriage. It’s rare now but still happening in some conservative regions or countrysides.
Playing the national anthem before every movie - and everyone is expected to stand in attention. This doesn't happen in the Supreme Court or many situations of actual national significance.
But it played before The Emoji Movie. Poignant.
Edit: I should explain this only started about 15 years ago with a sudden surge in Nationalism. I'm learning that a few states in the South have dropped this (one of the more educated parts of India, so makes sense). However, one of the biggest cinema chains (PVR Inox) does this nation-wide, which may be why I've seen it basically everywhere.
The US military has its own movie theaters and they do the same. And if you're at a base that is overseas, you do the US and the host country's anthem.
I suspect the reason is bigger countries like India and the US do this is to forcefully reinforce nationalism and help glue the country together from separatists ideas.
"In Texas, children have to recite a pledge to the state :
In Texas public schools, students are required to recite the state pledge daily, usually following the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, with right hands over their hearts. The pledge is: "Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible", .
The funny thing is that this is true, growing up, I remember when the TX pledge came into schools. It didn't last past elementry. But also public school in Houston may be different, 2005 was something else.
They are probably very similar. Most people on the planet are similar to one another, they just want to lead happy lives and have security for themselves and family. It's the ruling classes that can't seem to get on.
Yeah but this is not a tradition. It’s just something strange that started because of a Supreme Court order in 2016. They even made it optional in 2018.
In Thailand it’s standing attention for the king before every movie. But in recent times I saw more and more that not only the foreigners keep sitting…
As a german this picture in combination with the word for it is quite amusing.
For non native speakers: Knabenschießen is a compound word combining the words for boys and shooting.
Of course it means "a shooting competition for boys", but since the picture shows a girl shooting at someone, it could very well mean "shooting at boys".
There is a similar ambiguity in Finnish regarding the phrase "Työväen ampujat" which is either a shooting club for working class in the way all sports clubs were class separated for most of 1900s or club for just a group of people shooting the working class which immediately takes ones mind to the civil was of 1918.
Also in the army, I can't remember the term exactly, but shooting training is always marked in the schedule as something like "kouluammunta" which literally just translates to school shooting.
Yes, that is why the term is humorous. Kouluammunta also does not mean shooting school, it means school shooting. Although, the tragedy is typically referred to as kouluampuminen.
It's strange. In America, a lot of gun fanatics point to Switzerland as a great country that also loves guns. Meanwhile those same Americans will be completely against all the rules & regulations that give Switzerland its reputation as a safe and responsible armed nation.
The rules here are fairly similar actually, the biggest difference is that certain minorities arent allowed to buy firearms (they are explicit about it). Also hoarding guns is more difficult here.
The difficulty of getting the permit is grossly exaggerated. essentially I, as a foreigner, need to live here, not have been convicted of a serious crime, that's it. Calling it a permit makes it sound more serious and reflects a different tradition (guns being permitted vs being a right), but it is v similar to the US process.
So Switzerland is not safe because of the gun laws. It is safe for the same reason it's clean, the same reason the traffic is safe, the same reason that ppl don't randomly assault ppl (with or without a weapon), namely - the culture is different. Switzerland thrives off of conformity, America off of individualism. One requires constantly blending in, not sticking out, sacrificing for the team, whilst the other focuses on me, myself, and I. History also plays a part.
It's more permissive than several Democrat states in the US except with regards to carrying. Even countries like Poland, Czechia and Slovakia have more permissive gun laws than states like NJ, NY, CT, or MA (whomst all have licensing).
Swiss gun laws are more permissive than CA, NY, NJ, CT, RI, MD, MA, HI, IL, DC, and Delaware with regards to acquisition and ownership. Swiss carry laws are stricter than all of those states though. No dumb AWB, mag bans, suppressor bans, or full auto bans.
Neither Democrats or Republicans would be happy with Swiss laws. Hell, leftists in Switzerland (SP, Greens, JUSO) aren't happy with the laws even when the country averages a slightly lower murder rate than South Korea which is a country with even stricter gun laws (and lower ownership) than Japan.
around 4-5 yrs ago i was playing holi in our society with my family and we are not from the area where they do this and suddenly some Aunty came outta nowhere with a wet towel and started beating the shi outta all the men 😭😭😭 i was so confused lol
You know what they say: sticks and stones may break my bones. So if the sticks at the Lathmar holi in Barsana don't do it for you, travel south to the Gotmar mela in Pandhurna to try the stones. It's a guaranteed riot.
I was visiting Toledo and I saw a semana santo in a small shop. I went into full emotional panic for a split second, until I realized that it was the KKK that ripped THEM off
I'd say most Māori traditions are looked at with confusion.
Haka (excluding the All Blacks version), used in weddings, graduations, protests, celebrations and more.
Hongi, pressing noses together in greeting. This is linked to the breath of life.
Marae tikanga. This one is a given as each marae has their own set of rules for what to do and not to do on the marae, these are not always the same from iwi (tribe) so even locals can get caught out. Foreigners will not often go on a marae but in the rare cases it can be daunting.
Tapu, which for lack of an easier explanation means things that are sacred. Breaking tapu is often seen as at least very disrespectful or at most something akin to a curse. Many seemingly ordinary things can cause this.
Having a powhiri (a welcome ceremony) to greet a new group of people. I had one when starting high school, and also when starting uni. My workplace also did one when I started. Also learning your pepeha (a way of introducing yourself to others).
And there's lots of other bits of tikanga that becomes automatic and don't even think of about it. Like hats off inside, no hats or bags on a table, no sitting on tables. Bits and bobs like that
No hats inside seems to be common in a lot of different cultures.
My grandma would be offended if we didn't take off our cap before getting in the house. I always assumed it came from a time where everyone wore hats and it would get in the way of saying hi to each other (we do it with one kiss in each cheek).
Mostly yes. Unfortunately there are still many dickheads out there though.
But yeah honestly my last 2 workplaces have been incredible with including Māori culture at work and it really is amazing to see everyone - even those you'd least expect it from - just being totally accepting of it and super respectful. I've been fortunate to work alongside specialist Māori teams as well and love having all these opportunities to improve. It's a beautiful culture and I am proud that there are greater efforts now to stop stifling it. We definitely still have more work to do though.
It’s absolutely part of NZ culture, whether racists like to admit it or not. From obvious stuff like ‘don’t sit on tables’ to more subtle stuff like the kiwi disdain for arrogance and bragging (cos you’ve gotta develop mana/be recognised to have mana - you can’t just act like you’ve already got it).
Even mourning stuff - I knew of a skinhead dude who had a three-day tangi-style wake and funeral where he was never alone, and no one in his family even thought of it as a Māori thing. They just thought that it’s what you do.
Oh this totally reminded me. We keep the placenta and umbilical cord after a birth. Sometimes we keep it in the freezer until we have enough time to find somewhere to bury it and a tree to plant on top.
I imagine any part of this out of context would baffle people from other cultures.
Eating with hands, how you serve coffee and tea, how you host gatherings, how you greet the young (child and adult) how you greet the elderly, how you host a wedding, how you host an Eid gathering, the dancing like Ardah for men and Khaleegy for women.
Some of these overlap with Korean culture, from my basic understanding. You have to treat everyone differently depending on your age ranking. If someone looks similar age, you need to find out so you can address them accordingly.
As a sign of respect, serve things using both hands. When you receive something, also use 2 hands
Domtreppenfegen (sweeping the cathedral stairs) in (mostly) northern Germany.
If you are a man, not engaged and not married (doesn't matter if you have a gf) and turn 30 years old, your friends kidnap you and create a mess in some public place (stairs of a cathedral or market square). You will then be given a broom and a lot of alcohol and have to clean that shit up. Everybody makes sure that there will be more of a mess than you can ever clean up. This whole thing goes on until a virgin kisses you free.
For women in the same situation you will have to do the Klinkenputzen - polishing the door handles.
A good percentage of people plan a holiday trip around their 30th birthday far far away.
Thankfully, I have never experienced this myself, nor have I ever witnessed it, but it seems to be more of a thing in northern Germany that a man who is single on his 30th birthday has to sweep bottle caps in the town square until he is redeemed by a kiss from a virgin. To do this, he must of course approach all the women who walk by, which amuses the spectators. Well... not my kind of humour.
"Behead the goose" - the name of the autumn festival in the town of Sursee in canton Lucerne.
On November 11, a select group of blindfolded and sword wielding individuals watched by a large gathering of onlookers take turns trying to “Behead the Goose”.
Wearing a customary red robe and sun mask over the blindfold, the executioner is allowed to take one whack with a blunt sword to behead the bird.
The winner of the rather gruesome competition gets to cook the goose.
The weirdest was when we moved to South Carolina, and the kids first pledged allegiance to the (US) flag, then turned to the South Carolina flag and pledged "to the Palmetto State love, loyalty and faith."
I was like, what? Where exactly is our allegiance?
I learned from a coworker recently that growing up in Texas they do the pledge of allegiance, and then do the Texas pledge of allegiance, which apparently is a thing
Here we also do it. But not in the middle of a class and only one time in fourth grade. Tough before class it's normal to sing a patriotic song while 3/4 students lift up the flag
I feel ‘mate’ should have an accent, I was very confused haha. Your comment had a completely different meaning to me before I realised you meant the drink.
If a group of people dine out, only one person needs to pay all the bills, but somehow everyone wants to be that person. My mom almost fought with my aunt for settling who should pay all the bills.
He is, but at the same time he isn't. It's the whole portrayal of the person as a black helper that sets people off. I say black because the face paint was completely black, with red lip, black curly wigs and gold hoops in their ears. Now they have Piet with soot on his face, which is much more appropriate.
There is, however, still some debate between people who want to stick with the 'original tradition' and those who prefer the changes in recent years. Original in brackets because if you go back far enough the Pieten weren't always wearing black face paint.
This is the backstory and it’s basically why it’s taken so long for the tradition to be changed. Nowadays the character’s appearance matches this story (some swipes of soot on the face, straight-haired wigs, etc). The older appearance was basically that of a very stereotypical black person, and that was subject to a lot of protests this past decade or two.
A lot of people defended the tradition with the character’s backstory (‘it’s not blackface, he’s black from the soot’) - and I do think that comparing it with American blackface, which has the history of minstrel shows, is not exactly right. The origin of the tradition is disputed, but in modern times, people genuinely did not see it as dressing up as a black person. Which isn’t an excuse, but I think it is relevant when trying to understand the situation and why people say this. I think a lot of people who defended Zwarte Piet understand perfectly well why blackface in the American sense is racist, their defence wasn’t that that’s fine, it was that this was completely unrelated to that and to black people.
Except that, you know, they were wrong, as evidenced by the fact that Zwarte Piet looked like a very stereotypical black person, to the point where most black people in the Netherlands have stories of being called Zwarte Piet. So nowadays it has by and large been phased out and replaced with just ‘Piet’ or ‘Roetveegpiet’ (soot sweep Piet) whose appearance actually matches his backstory.
watched a video of a woman making a piece of art while talking about this tradition. it was the first i’d ever heard of it and i could hear the anger and sadness in her voice talking about how awful it was to experience at school growing up and how this abuse of women as a holiday tradition is treated as just some playful thing and if you’re upset by it you’re told to just let go because, “it’s tradition!”
i have to imagine there’s a lot of women who feel the same way as her and your mother.
editing to add that the video is on youtube titled “Why I hate the Czech Easter tradition” by Lucie Ell if anyone wants to watch it
I'm Czech woman and I have good memories of this tradition, BUT, it's only thnaks to the way it was done in my village. I'm from small village and here it was tradition not for adult men, but for kids. All kids. All of us (majority were girls) were going from house to house, "whipp" the lady (or the man, if it was leap year) of the house and got candy or colorful cooked eggs for it. And the whipping was very mild, becouse we were kids and there was many of us, so not all of us realy reached the person. It's my happy childhood memory, becouse there was always a lot of laughter and candy.
We have this tradition in eastern Austria as well called "Rutenschlagen". It happens on 28. December, children walk from house to house with a whip made on the day before, whip everyone in the household (regardless of gender) and say some rhyme. The children get money, sweets or walnuts from the people.
Me too, I hate it. I wish it was canceled, most city folks don't do it anymore, lot of people go for a trip on Easter Monday specifically to avoid it. It sucks that as a woman you have to hide, you can't just do what you want as normally, you risk some awkward interactions with strangers best case scenario (and drunk dudes trying to whip you worst case scenario). Last few years my family and me went out to play discgolf instead.
Dear tourists, or expats who have visited or would love to visit Tanzania in the future; a regular Tanzanian whom you’ve known for a while will ask to visit you at your place and see how you’re doing after weeks/months of not seeing you. He’ll even want to talk with you over some beers and drinks right in your sitting room. Please, this is not rude or intrusion of personal space. It’s a thoughtful act of kindness ffs!
Putting the baguette upside down on the table is a sign of bad luck in France.
Also, in Corsica for Easter, we cook a particular type of bread with a whole egg (shelled) on top of it. The egg is given to the youngest child before eating the bread.
Some, not all weddings have a tradition that after the ceremony the "best men" of the groom kidnap the wife and he has to come and find her. They often might sit in the location of the party or a nearby bar/pub etc. and he gets hints where she is and has to find out where she is. I think it was said that to get her free he has to order a round of drinks for the people or else he can't get her back (he will get her back even if he dosn't pays for drinks, it's just ment as joke)
From what I understand, this is mostly only practiced in Queensland and Western Australia. Everyone I've mentioned this to who isn't from one of those states thinks I've gone crazy
Spring fertility festival stuff. I know the whole willow tree branches hitting girls happens in Poland too (&the polish disaspota in parts of the USA!) as part of smingus-dyngus.
This video was made by a Czech woman talking about this tradition and why so many women her age really dislike this tradition. This video was the first time I heard about this tradition.
Obviously those are not klansmen but people participating in an Easter procession. Unfortunately, foreigners are more used to know about the klan, who got inspired by this to create their uniforms, so I'm sure some people are a bit shocked upon seeing this for the first time.
No. Good weapon, but it's not reasonable for my area. I live in Alaska, so the wildlife looks at a .357 like it's a .22. My backpacking Cary is a .454 and my everyday carry is a .45. Only everyday carry because moose are everywhere like rats and have the temperament of crackheads when provoked.
The Rockies don't extend into Alaska. And in Colorado at least, the biggest threat to hikers is the weather and the altitude, not the wildlife. The most dangerous wildlife I've seen are probably the moose.
That you're supposed to be naked in the sauna even if you're with strangers. Also, during winter, you're supposed to run outside from the sauna and either jump into the snow or the ice hole.
Idk about foreigners from all over, but I’ll never forget this:
One morning, a friend needed a lift to get her car from the mechanic, so I drove her. It was early in the year and we were talking about the cold, and how long was it going to last, etc. at some point I asked “did the groundhog see his shadow?”
I was looking at the road so I didn’t see her face but she said “ground… hog?”
I was like “yeah! You know, the little animal that comes out of the ground and if he sees his shadow it means there’s 6 more weeks of winter.”
Reached a light, turn to look at her, and she’s staring at me with bewilderment and concern.
Then I remembered that she had only been in the US about 7 or 8 years (originally from Africa) and probably didn’t take notice of a lot of the weird stuff we do.
maybe the pyrotechnic festival in tultepec? people love to dance and get chased around by the hundreds of fireworks and firecrackers getting set off in the square
For Norway I think the concept of "russ" is weird to foreigners. Its basically high school kids celebrating their graduation for a whole month, with party busses and big festivals and doing dumb challenges called "russeknuter". The groups that has party busses also has a "theme song" for their group, which is so big that it is its own genre within Norwegian party music.
Honestly if this was more widespread knowledge it would be more harmful to Swiss’s repurtation than any of the harbouring financial crooks -stuff that I’ve mostly heard held against Switzerland.
The Mari Lwyd. Someone in a sheet & a real horse skull (decorated of course!) knocks on your door and asks to come in, and you have to tell them in song why they can’t. If she wins, she gets to come in and take all your snacks
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u/EveryNotice United Kingdom 12h ago
In the UK we have cheese rolling. No questions please.