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30 Peculiar Things That Seem Normal In Some Countries But Not In The Rest Of The World
If you're still unsure (or need reminding) that the concept of normal is relative, there's one online thread that should, once and for all, convince you.
It began when Reddit user SackOfPotatoSacks made a post on the platform, asking everyone to share what's considered routine where they live but would probably be seen as something crazy everywhere else.
Immediately, people started describing the peculiarities of their local area that they've grown accustomed to, proving that culture seeps deeper into us than we often realize.
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My city is EXTREMELY bilingual, everyone speaks both English and French. You’ll hear people speak both languages in conversations quite often, sometimes in the same sentence. In stores, most of the time, people greet you with both languages and you reply in one of them, which tells them which language you prefer to talk in. They go "Bonjour, Hi!" And you say Bonjour back if you want to continue in French or Hi if you rather speak English. It’s kinda crazy.
I’m from Montréal, Canada.
I live in Dublin and when we tell people who live in America that we put crisps in sandwiches they laugh at us. Just try it mate. It’s so good
Free Sundays (germany)
Everything, literally everything is closed on Sundays which is amazing cuz everyone (except from the most essential like doctors, firefighters and the police) have a free day which is awesome!!
In Austria around Christmas/St Nicholas time we have events called "Krampusläufe" where people, mostly young (drunk) men dress up as demonic devil-like creatures called Krampus with fur suits, creepy masks and cow bells and pull of shows that include lots of fire, smoke, witch burns etc while mainly Ramstein plays in the back. They also like to whip people in the audience with cow tails. And hell yea we enjoy the show while getting drunk on hot punch. We even bring our kids along.
In Australian rural towns we all had our back doors unlocked; and friends are allowed to go through the back door and make themselves a cup of tea/coffee while they wait for you to get back from whatever you were doing.
It's not just rural towns. I grew up in Melbourne and this was true for everyone we knew in melbourne suburbs. We would come home and my mates would be in the living room or garage watching tv waiting for me to get home. Doors would never be locked...still rarely are to this day.
Experiencing 4 seasons every day. Jacket on, jacket off, it's sunny but it's raining, freezing and windy, then it's hot again... I like to wear shorts and puffer jacket combos for both extremes. Tasmania.
In the Eifel, germany, on the night to 1st of may, people paint a long line from one house to another. The line means that someone in these households is having an affair. Every year several relationships break up because of this. I love it.
Alligators. Just...everywhere. I live in a swampy area of Florida, and it's pretty normal to come across alligators in small ponds, ditches, around pools, or just chilling in a parking lot. I've nearly tripped on alligators more times than i'd like to admit. Thankfully they're pretty chill and won't really bother you unless you mess with them or go near a nest. The police are even trained to deal with rogue alligator calls.
I live next to a game reserve in South Africa. It's not that surprising to hear baboons in your back yard, or spot a rhino 10 meters from your fence.
One time a whole troop of baboons ran over our roof. It's only corrugated iron and we all shat our pants.
Madagascar. Every now and then we dig up corpses of our loved ones, bring 'em through the village where they lived for a visit, change the tissues they where covered in (several layers) with new ones and put them back in the grave and all that while partying.
I live in NJ and it’s illegal here for you to pump your own gas/fuel. All stations are full service by law. I believe Oregon is the only other state in the USA that has this law.
In Norway it's normal to release two million sheep (read: ***two*** ***million*** ***sheep***) into the *wild*, mostly unsupervised, where an estimated *100.000* of them die to either injuries, illness or predators, with the farmers crying and complaining (usually only to that last one), and then repeat the same process again the next year, and every year after that.
Does Norway kind of have a f****d up and moronic sheep farming practice? Yes, yes we do.
Where I used to live in Manitoba, nobody had fences, mainly because when the properties were divided up, the town planners left space that belonged to the town behind all of them, that was just a strip of forest and Canadian shield. So almost nobody put up fences because it cut off their view & access to what was essentially a super cool nature trail network throughout the town. Everyone knew once you hit mowed grass, that belonged to someone. Us kids barely ever went anywhere on foot via roads or sidewalks, we always took the trails (we rode bikes on the roads though, there were too many rocks on the trails for a regular kid's bike)
Of course, living in a forest had some unintended consequences. We frequently had bears, so I remember when I wasn't even 5 yet being taught what to do if I saw a bear. And two separate years we had a mountain lion, which was a lot worse. The town would hire someone to trap and relocate these animals but it always took a while. I remember watching a bear lying down under the crabapple tree in our front yard just eating all the windfall apples for ages, not a care in the world.
Important distinction: was the bear a black bear or a grizzly bear? One is significantly more dangerous than the other.
Driving 3 hours at 100km/h and still being in the middle of nowhere (Australia). In parts of Europe you’d have crossed 3 borders in that time
Starting college, meeting your class on week 1 and then having introductory sauna the next week, boys and girls all drunk & nekkid. Finland :3
Sounds like a good way to instill a healthier attitude towards the human body.
People who are 12-14 driving tractors on the roads in rural Ireland. The legal minimum age is 16, but most farmers don't really care.
EDIT: I didn't realise that this is a rural thing. Still comes as a shock to urban people though.
Farmers' kids do that here too. Not much use for a tractor in urban areas though.
I don't know. Might be good for going over traffic jams.
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In The Netherlands driving farm equipment on public roads is now legal at 16, but used to be 12. Driving on your own land starts when you can reach the pedals.
USA-My cousin same age as me lived on a farm and taught me to drive at 12. My parents were surprised a few years later to learn I already knew how to drive.
I remember puttering around on the tractor (not near the road though, just around the farm,) at age 10 or 11.
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I was about 10 when I learned. The tractor was a 1930s John Deere model with a hand clutch.
Allowed to drive independently at 10 (dad would be in the tractor cab before that). David Brown was the model I learned in!
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12-14 is pretty old. In rural Sweden it’s as low as 8-9… or when they can reach the pedals
It was all hand controls on the one I learned in! Means you can get the children started nice and early!
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We do it here in Alaska also. You'll see some kid driving a piece of heavy equipment down the road far far from anything that they're going to. Also we have quite a few four-wheelers. Both summer and winter, you know it's really winter when the dog sleds change from pulling the four wheelers to the actual sleds. Greetings from Alaska. John Fitzgerald Kennedy City. Lol!
LOL because of the mental imagery there! My best friend grew up in Alaska, and this story checks out. I also grew up driving tractors and motorcycles and shooting guns before legal driving age, I think it's part of why we get along. I really should go visit Alaska sometime
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Yes, this happens in rural USA as well. I think a lot of farm kids grow up faster and more responsible.
I worked on a farm one summer, occasionally had a 9 year old drive me around in a pickup. Made me feel like Indiana Jones.
My dad once got a tractor stuck in a ditch while driving it for his family in rural Idaho. He was 3. Farmers are the same everywhere. Funniest thing about this though is his grandson that is named after him drove a golf cart into a wall while at his older brother's school. Also 3 at the time.
I was driving a tractor and other farm machinery from aged 10 years. The only accidents I have had in over 50 years of driving are hitting a kangaroo on 2 separate occasions.
You'd think the kangaroo would have learned from the first time... (this is a joke).
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IDK what it's like now, but when I was growing up in the 1970s USA it was fairly common for farm kids to learn to drive multiple vehicles at about age 12 so they could be more useful in doing farm work. One friend of mine told me a hilarious story about how he first drove a car AND had his first beer at age 12 when they needed him to help vaccinate some cows in a back pasture.
I'm in Hawaii and I know a 4th grader (3rd grader when I met him) who has his own golf cart and drives it very often. It is not very rare here for that (and by the way I'm in 7th grade and j can't drive a golf cart if my life depended on it 🙃)
Farmers' kids everywhere, I suppose. If the parents allow it, if it's on their land. Some master the art of reversing into a parking space / barn by the age of ten. Maybe it's a bad idea to let them drive on public roads though.
Here in Montana (USA), this is also a common practice. Sometimes, a rancher needs to do the more laborious part of a job that requires using a moving vehicle. If all you have is a 10 year old daughter/son, you put the vehicle in 1st gear and have the 10 year old steer the vehicle in a straight line as you feed the cattle.
Irish traveller kids drive in London also, more chance of getting caught but I went to school with a few travellers and they at 13/14 years old would drive to school.
what unnerves me is seeing a tractor with no cab. lost a classmate when the cabless tractor flipped on him.
Rural areas in iowa allows kids to get their license at 14 if they needed to drive to school
This happens (in rural areas) in many countries. I didn't come from a farming area, but I believe getting the children working is the only way to get all the jobs done.
They might do that here in Oregon too. Lots of farms once you get out of the cities and towns.
Had a friend in HS who drove a tractor since he was ten or earlier (USA).
Tractors are not thought of as road vehicles to most farmers therefore you will see many underage drivers around the place.
I started driving any type of farm equipment/pickup as soon as I could reach the pedals. Everyone I knew did this, but I was too small to throw the hay on the hay wagon, so there ya go
That looks like a dangerous tractor! If it turns upside down, it will crush the driver. In Norway (I believe) rules say that tractors have to frames to protect the driver in such accidents.
My nephew was taught to drive at 6 so he could get car parts for my mechanic brother. The kid drove way better than my husband. Screwed sheet metal on the pedals and sat on a box a carborator came in. 🤷♀️
The village in Cornwall, England - where my grandparents live. This is a normal occurrence. 🤣
Same in Montana, USA. First time I was stuck on a tractor was when I was 6 or 7. Just had to steer it and maintain speed while folks were bucking hay bales on the flatbed trailer.
My kids had field cars at 11 or 12, they thought we didn't know they snuck out on the roads sometimes.
I've seen lots of kids here in rural America doing this. A local high school has tractor day were the students drive tractors, harvester, or any other farm equipment to school for the day.
The only downside is we all have to learn not to press the clutch. Which the equivalent pedal in a US vehicle is the very wide pedal in the center. The brake. I was 29 before I learned how to drive an automatic transmission vehicle. It took months before it was safe to ride with me. I shattered my left leg and had no choice. Plus they stopped making vehicles with the clutch in the floor and my 1989 S-10 Blazer burned up its 2nd motor at the rip old age of 11 leaking antifreeze into the engine block. But her body was repaired after every ding and she sparkled with a fresh clear coat over a brand new galaxy black paint job. Worth more w/o an engine than with. To this day, if I spend 1/2 a day on my John Deere tractor and get into my Ford F150, I will still hit the clutch on occasion. My poor dog "I'm sitting already dammit!" "I know-my bad-I'm sorry" Both my daughters learned to drive tractors and Gators and 4 wheelers. Spread seeds, muck out stalls, carry hay, bury pets. We live life in 4 wheel drive, sometimes 6, 12 or more wheels turning all at once.
US; my bf drove his grandparents' tractor at 11, but it was very rural property.
Very common here in Arkansas. You may see kids as young as 6 or 7 driving and think nothing about it. On a farm everyone works starting young.
Also not strictly an Irish thing, I grew up in a rural area in the Midwestern US and this was common there as well
In Alberta, Canada, teens can get their learners at 14 and full licence at 16. It all has to do with farming.
Texas here. My son was 9 when he learned to drive the truck for his Dad while they were out on our property. It wasn't legal of course but my husband needed help and I had to take care of a sick child back in the house. You do what you have to do.
That's okay when they're on the farms, but we went smack into the side of a large agricultural vehicle turning off from the main road into a field without signalling. Driver was a teen without a driving license.
No matter what country it is, when your family business is Farming, it is literally a family business, where even the youngsters pitch in to do the work. Not a bad way to live.
Farm kids here in the U.S. do it too and not just tractors. It’s not unusual to see kids driving farm trucks around.
My papaw let my cousin drive the tractor at 11/12 years old here in rural Ohio.. it was normal in our small town in the late 90s early 2000s
That also happens in Michigan. In the winter kids who attend country schools and are under 14 are legally allowed to ride snowmobiles or quads to and from school.
I learned a very shocking yet I'm stupid lesson driving a tractor in the woods on a the "tractor trails"... Lesson: hitting a root bump pops a tractor wheely meaning you NO LONGER have the ability to steer because the front wheels are OFF the ground.. also meaning trees will not jump out of the way and an abrupt stop is imminent and my poor 4 mth old apricot toy poodle did NOT enjoy his flight and I did Not enjoy that lesson. Hit that tree slow n hard! Btw that poodle lived til 15 yrs old (passed away 2 weeks ago) but with an added metal rod in 1 leg.
I think that happens in all rural farming areas - I grew up in rural Montana(USA) and drove tractor but only on private land
This is normal in all rural areas. Some states in the US have a special type of drivers license kids can get if a person who owns enough land (usually 20 acres) signs off on it so this includes cars going full speed on the highway as well.
I mean, my mom did in southern Ontario in the fifties. She said it's how she learned to drive a stick shift!
My high school had a pretty popular drive your tractor to school day. We also accepted riding lawnmowers lol
My senior high school ( US grades 9-12, ages 14-18 ish) had an unofficial, very popular, drive your tractor to school day. We also got several riding lawnmowers lol
Where in the world is this not normal, I was 12 driving a Dodge pickup in the mountains of Puerto Rico. 1998 Dodge Dakota, I miss that truck. We had a small farm, and I would buy the feed once a week.
Rural USA, its common. A friend of mine has been driving truck since she was 11. Referred to as a "farmer's license". To the feed store and back, as long as they can prove its for farm related purposes, PLUS, all over the property (being that a state license is only required to use state roads. Private roads and property are fair game for the owner).
I’ve seen kids as young as 6 practicing driving tractors. Also in Ireland.
I learn to drive on my grandfather's tractor. Manual, 3 gears. Probably 11-12?
Pretty standard for farming. I think I was around 10 or 11 when I learned to drive a tractor. I remember that I couldn't reach the pedals from the seat so getting started was a pain. Once you're cultivating you don't really need the clutch or brakes. You have hand controls for the hydraulics and the ground speed. I wasn't allowed on the road until I was about 14.
Just talked to a guy at work that was driving tractor at 12 in rural Ohio.. pretty normal
I learned how to drive a tractor when I was 10 (US). My grandmother had me driving on the freeway by age 12.
The age to get a learners permit is 14 in Alberta because of so many ranches and farms. 16 in most other provinces.
I was driving at 8/9 but farmers children tend to do it without a permit as it is only on private land. We had three farms but only needed to cross fields to get to them.
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You can drive off road from as early as usual can reach the pedals and see out!
I was ploughing field when I was 9, with a Clydesdale horse and a one furrow plough
Pretty dangerous if the child is not tall enough or strong enough to actually control that big machine. Plus he could slide off asnd get smashed.
On the ones I drove as a small child the accelerator and brake were hand controls (no clutch). The bigger tractors were driven when we were older and taller - it's almost as if the parents looked to see which their children could reach and manage. As for strength, planes are massive beasts but it's not the physical strength of the pilot that manoeuvres them. Same with quite a few vehicles.
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Driving over the mountains and shouting "mint sauce" out the window to the sheep....
Wales
( And fellow welshys... Don't lie..you know you've done it)
Free public transport in the whole country: buses, trains, trams.
If this were universal it would make such a difference to so many people, as well as to the planet's carbon budget.
Having your birthday party look like this:
Your livingroom is transformed so that there's a great circle of chairs with a coffeetable in the center.
If it's an afternoon party, guests will visit between 14:00 and 17:00 or 18:00 - 21:00, but not both! there's 1 timeslot for friends and 1 for family).
As a guest, you arrive, you congratulate the birthday boy or girl, hand over your present. Then you introduce yourself to the group if you don't know them yet. Then, you go over the circle and shake everyone's hand and ALSO congratulate them with so-and-so's birthday.
After making your way through the circle, you take your empty chair and that is now your seat for the rest of the party.
After everyone arrived, the birthday person will bring you a piece of cake and a beverage (usually coffee or tea). Everyone eats their cake and talks to the person sitting next to him/her.
After everyone is done, there'll be a tour of the house and any new things will be pointed out to you. Now is your moment to ask some questions like "oh, was it expensive?" and also compliment the host on how great it is.
After the tour there'll be another round of food and drinks, snacks will be laid out on the coffeetable, but you shouldn't eat much of it. This is the only food that will be brought out and everyone has to share it.
After guests were there for about 3 hours they'll leave again. Everyone knows they're expected to leave but you need to come off as really wanting to stick around longer but you just couldn't because the dog needs to go for a walk or something, make up any excuse that sounds probable.
Then, repeat the cycle again in the evening with the other group. The weekend after that, invite your close friends to come over and have the real party.
Brazil: Apparently being in a restaurant for hours and hours and only eating in 1% of the time. We talk for hours before and after eating here, so we don't leave right after eating. Everyone I knew from other country found it strange
Drinking alcohol for the first time when you're around 14 y/o. In Germany, it is legal to buy beer and wine when you're 16. So the majority of parents don't see it as a problem when the first drunk experience happens a few years earlier. Actually it is hard to find a teenager here that never tried alcohol before.
Calling an uber instead of an ambulance or going to work while sick during a pandemic.
Gotta love freedom
Romania. Being a witch/medium is an official job, meaning you need a permit, your profit is monitored and you pay taxes.
When killing a pig, raw skin covered in salt is the first food consumed, as it is considered a delicacy.
We also fill the pig's small intestine with a mixture of meat, rice and garlic and put it in the oven for about an hour. Yum!
Many people believe that if you look at a baby for too long, you can unknowingly put a curse on it, which will make it cry until you pour holy water on the child and pray to make the curse go away. Parents are an exception, they can not curse their own child.
Ah yes, that well known method of quieting a crying baby, tipping water on them
Many (but not all) Germans restricting themselves to exactly one hot meal per day. I've heard sentences such as:
"No I can't, I already ate warm at lunch"
"I tried so hard to find a breakfast place that sells cold food"
"Let's just eat bread, I've had hot lunch"
"You can't eat two hot meals, that's too much"
I still don't get why it has to be no more and less than one hot meal? And why do breakfast pancakes not count as hot food?
This is one thing I struggle with. I am Asian, born and raised in Germany. While being little i hated having rice every day. Sometimes up to three times. Then I moved in with my ex, with whom I still live with. He has bread for breakfast and bread for dinner, almost every day. If you add two pickled cornichons and two cherry tomatoes and maybe even a soft boiled egg for dinner, it's considered a feast. I couldn't function without proper hot meals and learned to appreciate my rice now 😅
Today (in Japan)over a hundred people lined up (staggered for social distancing) at 9:00 am on a Saturday. First one hundred get a ticket. At 10:30 we all line up again. One at a time we draw a number; 1 to 5. Then we go over to a big basin of the best quality of rice and take as many scoops as the number we drew. You are encourage to make each scoop heaping. This is not a food bank thing (I hope) just the promise of “good rice” draws a crowd.
It was at a roadside tourist shop/complex.
Israel. Where I live, it is normal.for about 15% of the population not to work and get paid by the government since they are praying to God and that's important too. Off course, the rest of the ppl pay for them. f**k them and their god
15% unproductive adults is a hell of a lot for a society to carry. Although, I read, it's just the men that do this. The women are raised to be the workhorses in those cults (sorry, but if you raisechildren into this, it's a cult not a cloister/temple/monestary) and do ALL the work.
Welp, in Lithuania we have hill of crosses with over 200 k. crosses, we have a hotel where you live in a jail cell and ex KGB agents shout at you and dogs bark at you all the time.
Sweden: The government has monopoly on any alcohol above 3.5% and can only be bought at one store dedicated to it.
In Cincinnati we eat spaghetti noodles topped with a soup-like chili and a 1/4 pound of shredded cheddar cheese.
And it’s delicious.
Putting a block of cheese in your hot chocolate. Colombia.
Note: this post originally had 66 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I'm Malaysian. We have the culture of 'open house' during festivities. During this time, anyone, even strangers can come to your house to celebrate. They'll be treated with foods, drinks and a token sum of money (only for kids) . Back when I was little, my friends and I made rounds to neighbors' houses to collect these token money. And kids from neighboring villages did come to my house and my parent gave them money too. Nowadays though, only relatives and close friends come for a visit. No strangers come anymore. I suppose if strangers do come, we are still culturally obliged to offer them food and drink. In the last 20-30years, our Government has adapted this culture by having open house for major Malaysian festivals. During Eid celebration for example, our prime minister will set 1 day for an open house for anyone to come; regardless whether they are Malaysians or not. This year, the attendance was in excess of 100K people.
I was wondering if the Easter whip tradition we held in Czech Republic will be on the list because I know that people from different countries find it quite crazy. On the morning of Easter Monday, men gently spank women with a special handmade whip. The whip called pomlázka consists of withies (willow rods or other twigs), is usually from half a meter to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. Women wear multiple long dresses to avoid the minor pain that would be caused by the whipping. If men arrive at women's houses after 12 o'clock, women throw a bucket of cold water on them. In some regions the men also douse girls with water or spray perfume on them. When going house to house, the male first sings a verse relating to eggs and spring themes like bountifulness and fertility. If the young woman doesn't have any decorated eggs she turns around and the man takes a few whacks at her legs with the whip.
Ah yes, so many of my friends are still traumatized by this idiotic, degrading tradition. Someone tries to whip me now I'll whip them right back. What does a stranger or WORSE a creepy uncle or a family member have to do with my fertility. F**k it so much.
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Is anyone else getting ads at the top of the page that take up 3/4 of the page? I use an add blocker, but it doesn't seem to always do its job properly. It is very frustrating! It wasn't happening yesterday when I was on the site. Why is it happening today? Anyone have any tips?
Here in Brazil, the host at a birthday part is expected to lay all gifts over their bed and show the guests how many gifts they got before leading them to the actual party. Also, you *HAVE* to cut the first piece of the cake yourself if it is your birthday and can only give that one to the friend you love the MOST! While you are cutting, it is common that those around you will start shouting the reasons why you should give THEM the first piece (things like "remember that time we did X together?", "remember when we went to that place?" etc), which is a cool way of being reminded of good moments with your friends in a humorous tone. If you are too shy, confront adverse, a huge spoilsport or simply a coward, you can take the safest, most diplomatic (and by far the most boring) road and give that precious first slice to one of your parents, a significant other or your own kid. People will usually boo that a bit as being super artificial and a coward's choice, but it's all in good fun.
I remember seeing a video online of a kid giving the first slice to his little brother. It was adorable, little brother burst into happy tears.
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This an interesting look at other cultures. I am fascinated by all the different things that each area does . Sometime soon I hope to travel to each place . Thank you to all whom contributed.
Growing up in country Australia, we wandered at will into all our neighbours houses, called everyone’s parents Aunty and Uncle.
The State of Texas has a rich history. Being that it was literally once considered (and in some parts, still is) the "Wild West" there are a lot of things that happened. So when you drive through the state, even in the middle of nowhere, be on the look out for Black Iron Plaques called Historical Markers, that tell the story of what happened there. Growing up there was one near our home that told the story of a Comanche raising party that slaughtered (and I do mean, in detail how they died) a small family of settlers and stole the children. Sure enough, you go back into the woods in the middle of nowhere and there is still a tiny family plot of graves with nothing but prairie grass and oak trees to watch over it
It's really not, the water throwing happens on a very small scale compared to the whipping. It would also happen quite often that the men get progressively drunker during the day and end up basically whipping the s**t out of women and calling it "a bit of fun".
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Well, here's another BP post with nothing but negativity for the US. Look, I know there's a lotta things that suck here. We're aware of that. But there's also a lotta GOOD things, and good PEOPLE. Please stop putting us all in one ugly basket. Thanks.
We all say this all the time - that all countries have their negatives and positives, just like all people have their negatives and positives. But the people at BP that make these continuous divisive, stereotypical and biased posts do not care. But we keep saying it anyway. Maybe just for our fellow Pandas to know that we object and that it's unbalanced and unfair. Oh well.
Load More Replies... I'm Malaysian. We have the culture of 'open house' during festivities. During this time, anyone, even strangers can come to your house to celebrate. They'll be treated with foods, drinks and a token sum of money (only for kids) . Back when I was little, my friends and I made rounds to neighbors' houses to collect these token money. And kids from neighboring villages did come to my house and my parent gave them money too. Nowadays though, only relatives and close friends come for a visit. No strangers come anymore. I suppose if strangers do come, we are still culturally obliged to offer them food and drink. In the last 20-30years, our Government has adapted this culture by having open house for major Malaysian festivals. During Eid celebration for example, our prime minister will set 1 day for an open house for anyone to come; regardless whether they are Malaysians or not. This year, the attendance was in excess of 100K people.
I was wondering if the Easter whip tradition we held in Czech Republic will be on the list because I know that people from different countries find it quite crazy. On the morning of Easter Monday, men gently spank women with a special handmade whip. The whip called pomlázka consists of withies (willow rods or other twigs), is usually from half a meter to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. Women wear multiple long dresses to avoid the minor pain that would be caused by the whipping. If men arrive at women's houses after 12 o'clock, women throw a bucket of cold water on them. In some regions the men also douse girls with water or spray perfume on them. When going house to house, the male first sings a verse relating to eggs and spring themes like bountifulness and fertility. If the young woman doesn't have any decorated eggs she turns around and the man takes a few whacks at her legs with the whip.
Ah yes, so many of my friends are still traumatized by this idiotic, degrading tradition. Someone tries to whip me now I'll whip them right back. What does a stranger or WORSE a creepy uncle or a family member have to do with my fertility. F**k it so much.
Load More Replies... Is anyone else getting ads at the top of the page that take up 3/4 of the page? I use an add blocker, but it doesn't seem to always do its job properly. It is very frustrating! It wasn't happening yesterday when I was on the site. Why is it happening today? Anyone have any tips?
Here in Brazil, the host at a birthday part is expected to lay all gifts over their bed and show the guests how many gifts they got before leading them to the actual party. Also, you *HAVE* to cut the first piece of the cake yourself if it is your birthday and can only give that one to the friend you love the MOST! While you are cutting, it is common that those around you will start shouting the reasons why you should give THEM the first piece (things like "remember that time we did X together?", "remember when we went to that place?" etc), which is a cool way of being reminded of good moments with your friends in a humorous tone. If you are too shy, confront adverse, a huge spoilsport or simply a coward, you can take the safest, most diplomatic (and by far the most boring) road and give that precious first slice to one of your parents, a significant other or your own kid. People will usually boo that a bit as being super artificial and a coward's choice, but it's all in good fun.
I remember seeing a video online of a kid giving the first slice to his little brother. It was adorable, little brother burst into happy tears.
Load More Replies... This an interesting look at other cultures. I am fascinated by all the different things that each area does . Sometime soon I hope to travel to each place . Thank you to all whom contributed.
Growing up in country Australia, we wandered at will into all our neighbours houses, called everyone’s parents Aunty and Uncle.
The State of Texas has a rich history. Being that it was literally once considered (and in some parts, still is) the "Wild West" there are a lot of things that happened. So when you drive through the state, even in the middle of nowhere, be on the look out for Black Iron Plaques called Historical Markers, that tell the story of what happened there. Growing up there was one near our home that told the story of a Comanche raising party that slaughtered (and I do mean, in detail how they died) a small family of settlers and stole the children. Sure enough, you go back into the woods in the middle of nowhere and there is still a tiny family plot of graves with nothing but prairie grass and oak trees to watch over it
It's really not, the water throwing happens on a very small scale compared to the whipping. It would also happen quite often that the men get progressively drunker during the day and end up basically whipping the s**t out of women and calling it "a bit of fun".
Load More Replies... Well, here's another BP post with nothing but negativity for the US. Look, I know there's a lotta things that suck here. We're aware of that. But there's also a lotta GOOD things, and good PEOPLE. Please stop putting us all in one ugly basket. Thanks.
We all say this all the time - that all countries have their negatives and positives, just like all people have their negatives and positives. But the people at BP that make these continuous divisive, stereotypical and biased posts do not care. But we keep saying it anyway. Maybe just for our fellow Pandas to know that we object and that it's unbalanced and unfair. Oh well.
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