We tend to glide through life doing countless little things every day without any second thought. But the truth is that our lifestyle, views, and values are strongly influenced by the culture we’re exposed to. And if there’s one thing we can all agree on, customs and traditions vary widely around the globe. It’s a part of what makes our beloved planet such a diverse and charming place to live, isn’t it?
Traveling is a great way to learn about the similarities and differences people share with others across borders. After all, a thing that seems ordinary to us may look totally bizarre to people elsewhere. Thankfully, with the internet at our fingertips, those of us confined to our countries can expand our perspectives from the comfort of our own homes. So one Redditor, kerris2508, decided to delve deeper into the facts about other parts of the globe.
Recently, they reached out to the ‘Ask Reddit’ community with a very fine question: “What is something that in your culture is normal, but in another place is a weird thing?” People jumped to type out their honestly fascinating examples, and the thread immediately became a hit. We’ve hand-picked some of our favorite responses to share with you, so check them out down below. Be sure to upvote the ones you have not heard about before, and if you know any odd quirks about your home country, let us know about them in the comments!
Psst! If you’re keen to broaden your cultural awareness even more, take a look at Bored Panda’s earlier piece right here.
#1 Denmark
To leave the stroller (with the sleeping baby inside it) outside a café, while the mom/dad sits inside – if the weather is good. (Denmark)
Edit: It’s a common thing all over Scandinavia/Scandinavian Peninsula – I’m specifically mentioning Denmark because I live here.
Image credits: Lumisateessa
#2 America
Celebrating a chubby, mystical, groundhog that can predict the end of winter based on its shadow 😮
Image credits: Senator_Morgana
#3 US
Where I live in the US, we pull over for funeral processions. It’s a respect thing and everyone does it. A friend of mine from a different part of the states saw me do this while driving once and was SO confused and made fun of me out of confusion. It’s so common I didn’t realize some people don’t do this.
Image credits: witchybitchbarbie
#4 Sweden
Getting a sausage from a hardware shop
Image credits: effjayyelle
#5 China
Guests pay to attend the wedding banquet. Depending on who you invite, it’s quite common for the newlyweds to make a decent profit.
Image credits: jwrx
#6 Ireland
Cheering in a pub when someone drops a glass.
Saluting magpies
saying “bye bye bye buh bye, bye now, bye bye bye, buh bye…” a hundred times before you hang up the phone.
Going to the funeral of anyone you even remotely know. Our funerals can be massive.
Waving a salute to anyone you pass on the road.
Leaving the pub without telling anyone.
Image credits: Shodandan
#7 UK
Using a puzzling mixture of metric and imperial measurements, for example, measuring cooking ingredients in grams but measuring body weight in stones.
Image credits: TailsxCream4Eva
#8 Nepal
Addressing strangers using terms used for family members like brother, sister, uncle, aunty, grandpa, etc. The most common being brother/sister. We have unique words representing all 4 variations of little/big brother/sister.
And guess what, one day you would be calling a girl ‘baini’ (little sister), that girl be calling you ‘dai’ (big brother) and a couple weeks later you are dating each other and ditch the sibling style addressing. Then you either call each other by name or come up with nicknames.
Edit: I’m from Nepal.
Image credits: secCcosMOS
#9 Australia
Saying “Hey, how you going?” as a greeting. Extremely common in Australia, but apparently it isn’t used anywhere else in the English-speaking world.
Was extremely surprised when I said it to an American one day while talking online and they were confused. “What do you mean how am I going…? By car…?”.
It’s interesting, because it’s like the perfect amalgamation of “How’s it going?” and “How you doing?”, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to register that way for non-Aussies!
Image credits: flameylamey
#10 Philippines
Pointing to a direction with your lips.
Image credits: The_Crow
#11 Iran
Some casual Iranian sayings of endearment:
“I want to eat your liver”
“I will sacrifice my life for you”
“My stomach is tight for you”
“Wishing your breath to be warm”
Not endearing, but “dirt on your head” if you are upset with someone, essentially meaning that you should be buried.
Image credits: fatdonkey54
#12 Kenya And India
I wouldn’t say this is part of my culture, but in both Kenya and India, when you go to the movies they play the national anthem on screen before the trailers and everyone has to stand up. I’d been away for so long that I’d completely forgotten this craziness and was visiting my mum, went to watch a movie, everyone stood up and I was so confused until the memories were unlocked.
Image credits: ArterialSludge
#13 Poland
beating women with a bundle of twigs, throwing cold water at them and then spraying them with cologne as a part of folk tradition on Easter
Image credits: slk-operator
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