Weird Traditions

[Evenstar]

*sigh* I can't think of any weird traditions we have here in my country (apart from biting on a rock in a place you went into for the first time) so do you have any weird traditions in your country/place/city/home??? :eek13:

[_Ink]

ah yes, I celebrate Thaipusam with the Indians back at malaysia, since I am a freethinker, I usually join them in their frenzied trance and dance where they hook themselves up with milk pots (I mean literally, hooked into the skin) and large altars, as they dance across the street, I usually just go along and have fun.
One of the most interesting events of every year.
I also join in their ceremony of breaking coconuts on the street, very very fun, it is a form of spiritual cleansing, it is said that the young coconuts represents their sins, so breaking them would then make them be forgiven and given a fresh start.

[Shinji]

Here we have something called Midsommar (Midsummer is the translation) and we dance around a Midsommerstång (Midsummer pole) and we're singing a song called Små grodorna (Little frogs). I know it sounds weird and it is but I love it.

[Shinigami_Josh]

we have "harmony" week a public thing only in aus, only in the schools

[thelastangel]

Gah, in the UK there is no known weird traditions, but I have heard of a family in the UK who have a very strange tradition for christmas day. They will wake up early in the morning, strip naked, then conga around their house for a few minutes with all the family members naked. Imagine seeing your mother naked >_<

[Stigmata]

Oh DEAR GOD....


WHY would you do that to me?

[Shinigami_Josh]

rofl a guy i know is from some other country theres is they get to open xmas persants on xmas eve

[Ulquiorra]

the olden days ( few 1000 years ago)

i think when chinese ppl get married(1000 years ago), they have to have sex together that night =.=

[Stigmata]

There's that family that have to walk on all fours. Although, that's not a tradition, they physically can't walk on their legs for too long.

[Ayi-chan]

the olden days ( few 1000 years ago)
i think when chinese ppl get married(1000 years ago), they have to have sex together that night =.=

Going along with that, sometimes the "happy couple" never even met until the wedding. Man, am I glad parents are not allowed to arrange marriages.

[Hotaru]

There's that family that have to walk on all fours. Although, that's not a tradition, they physically can't walk on their legs for too long.
you mean the weird turkish siblings right? they were in the news like a week ago...
anyway, most ppl have sex on their wedding night, right??? or am i getting it wrong...
anyway, no weird tradition in my country... apart from the fact that we burn things we want to send to our reltions in heaven... well... now its Soul Society sice i have started watching bleach!!!!!

[Nichigo]

I'm Filipino and there's one tradition we've kept in the family. Whenever we come home from somewhere, and/or before we go to sleep, the younger people in the house (usually children) give "mano" (blessing) to the elders in the house (parents, grandparents, etc.). This constitutes the younger person taking the back of one of the elder's hands and touching it to his (the young person) forehead. It's a sign of respect.

I live with my grandfather, so like whenever I come home from school or church or whatever, I go to him and press the back of his hand against my forehead. Might sound weird to non-filipinos, but it's very respectful to elders.

[Quiet Demon]

My tradition is that of a sailor (which I am). When ever I get to a new port or harbor, I give my blessings to the land (as in the earth) for being there.

Also, I have a piercing from a nail and hammer (in my ear) for each time I round Cape Horn.

[Ulquiorra]

o more chinese traditon : like really tradtional family, ur age depends ur rank, so if ur youngest u have to say everyones name as a manner before dinner. if ur the oldest (elder) u don't have to do anything

[UraharaTenchou]

oh ya true..but i dun do that anymore already
the malays do not eat pork, also in places that sell pork..they can't even be a seller in pork shop..

[Ulquiorra]

i hate red pocket/envlope tradition, u gotta say something nice , then u get the money. all i can say is kung hay fat choi lol :LOL:

[konberry]

LMAO!!! I'm okay with that I guess lol... ahh, at family reunions, you HAVE to greet every single relative (even the ones you don't know, or haven't seen before... @-@"") I don't know what to call them.... I just say "hi.." LOL

[Ayi-chan]

I'm Vietnamese, so pretty much Respect and Manners are what get you far in the family. Any elder relative or family friend etc. is always greeted with a bow. It shows that we respect them and that we have some sense to be polite. I've been doing that pretty much since I was about 4 or maybe 5. We also get the red paper money on Chinese New Years, and they usually have 20 dollar bills so yea, it's all good.

[UraharaTenchou]

i hate red pocket/envlope tradition, u gotta say something nice , then u get the money. all i can say is kung hay fat choi lol :LOL:
i never say that since the first day visited my relatives..never occur to me. i know there's a need to say it, but i felt unecessary..

[Quiet Demon]

Pardon my arrogance, but what is this "red envelope"? I have never heard of this. Damn my Americanism.

[Evenstar]

It's a...hmmm...chinese new year tradition...the envelope is called "ang pao" or something... they give money to their loved ones on the Chinese New Year because...LOL~ dunno...it's their tradition...

Oh yeah, here in my country, you can't bathe, cut nails, get pricked or do anything on Good Friday...not even eat something decent...LOL~

[Quiet Demon]

Oh, thanks.
The same applies for Good Friday here too as well as not eating meat. At least in my house.
Another one of mine is the tradition of atonement. It is for every grave error I make in judgement, I must give up a luxury.
For my last sin I am giving up my freedom for 4 years in 3 weeks.

[Evenstar]

LOL~ For real??? That's quite..a luxury...yeah....

Not eating meat is called abstinence...argh...Christian traditions >.<

[Quiet Demon]

It's meerly for vanity, I was broght up a catholic, but I matured out of it. I now only believe in facts.

[Evenstar]

Hmmm...*sniffs a debate over Christianity and Atheism*

LOL~ Well, all I can say is that weird traditions of most countries mostly originates from religious ones, correct?

[Quiet Demon]

yup, for the most part. Other traditions arise out of habit as well.

[UraharaTenchou]

Oh yeah, here in my country, you can't bathe, cut nails, get pricked or do anything on Good Friday...not even eat something decent...LOL~
WHAT?!
well, we just celebrate like it is...i didn even know there's something like that until u said it.. oh well, pardon me..

[_Ink]

Kung Hay Fat Choy was the most stupid thing ever...you wanna know why? The hipocrisy...
The person greeting to the elders to get the red packets of various amount of currency is actually wishing the elders "I hope you will receive prosperity and riches" when the person greeting is the one receiving the riches...i never figured out how it works or who the hell did that even though I am chinese.

[UraharaTenchou]

LOL, makes sense! i dun see the necessity though

[death]

this is dumb

[WizKid77]

Eh, there's really no weird traditions that go on here. MY friends and I have our own weird traditions, but nothing all to weird. Just like certain parties we have every year and make awards for one of the parties at the end of the year. Also after pullin an all-nighter (which happens a lot during parties) we walk to Stuff-A-Bagel for breakfast at 5 in the morning.

[frbbls]

Gah, in the UK there is no known weird traditions, but I have heard of a family in the UK who have a very strange tradition for christmas day. They will wake up early in the morning, strip naked, then conga around their house for a few minutes with all the family members naked. Imagine seeing your mother naked >_<

sounds extremely awesome! xD

[WizKid77]

sounds extremely awesome! xD
sounds disturbing to me

[Ulquiorra]

ewww. wut kinda tradition is that >.>

[dragoneyes001]

only guaranteed tradition and not really wierd.

I never work(no matter how big a project is going on at the time) on my birthday its a ski day every year.

but If i'm working for someone at the time I make sure to give plenty of notice.

[Machiavelli]

That cannot be guaranteed tradition I may say, for no one did guaranteed it. Tradition is the product of man's propensity to seek things to please whatever they believe in/to, as in the case of religion or paganism or whatsoever.

Traditions too are actually weird. Weird, according to the dictionary means: of an odd and inexplicable character; unusual; strange; fantastic. What I just claimed is that were making the basis of weird according what we are ordained or raised into, and whatever that occurs that is indifferent and seems never-before seen, we instantly claim it as "weird". Realization may pop-out, but being in whatever where we are are basic manifestation of being real. :)

[thelastangel]

sounds disturbing to me

I agree, it does sound disturbing. Wonder if they might convert to naturists XD

[Machiavelli]

I shall post something relevant here in this thread so as to compliment with the topic [of this thread is].

Here (I will not tell my country), during Holy Weeks, people who are so devoted usually let themselves nailed to cross... just like what happened to Jesus Christ.

[kaede822]

<.<

ooh..i think i know where your from...lol

in our country, same thing happens..but hey..alot of other countries do that..

[Sanzora]

Ok I can't remember when last I saw this done, but there's a tradition amongst the stronger traditional africans called labola... The groom pays the father of the bride in cattle to marry his daughter

[MatsumotoRangiku]

Their is no wiard traditions where I live it is just as usual unless it is a holiday which is rarely so it gets to be boring alot of times.

[Momo]

um... in korea... let me see... we gotta take tea, no coffee rofl
really there's no weird traditions neither.... >.>
all I can remember is that when a kid have bad grades,make disasters and such, lol the adults or parents or whatever take out the stick and start hitting them... and its on legs... :eek: painfull >< lol

thats all I guess XD

[BeeCrest]

Every year we celebrate the Chinese New Year with friends by having a big feast. And the kids (everyone below the age of 20 basically) gets money in a red envelope.

[Ichi-Zoro 3]

Only The Dumbest person in the world would celebrate a tradition without purpose!

[Momo]

oh I just remembered one, there's a day that u really need to "bow" to the elders, especially when that person has success in everything and is like a "leader". Then um... we talk stuff and at the end they give u money.... depending if u are friendly with them hehe

[Aniu_Lonewolf]

we have pretty normal traditions, going somewhere for a trip every year, visiting family for holidays, stuff like that

[Arkturus]

nothin' too extreme at my place. although the children here are forced to cover and 'pray' every time there is lightening and thunder. i grew out of it some years back... i now laugh in the face of thunderstorms!

[xdisjpnzkraziix]

im japanese and the only thing i can think of that's weird is that they are really supersticious...and they always make peace signs when they take pics....but i have no interest in my heritage...so i don't know anything else..

[ashiin]

almost all asians do peace signs in pictures=/ i don't know what your thinking in your head.

my family always watch friends when we eat dinner. Like always

[frouella]

There was a weird tradition around where I grew up in northern Michigan where if you went fishing for smelt (a particular kind of small fish), one -- you had to call it "smelt dipping" b/c they swam in huge schools down the river and you would just dip a net in to catch them, and two -- you were supposed to bite the head off one of the first you caught. I dunno if you were supposed to eat it or what, 'cause I never did it. Thought it was weird though...

The other strange stuff came from my mom, who is Japanese. She told me to never take a picture of my cats because then they would run away, and once she got into an argument with my aunt and kicked her out of our house, but then she started throwing salt around to purify it again. Apparently, that's a Shinto thing, but I don't know where that cat thing came from. :LOL:

[Kurai-chan]

the following aren't really that weird but i still consider them weird..

- some of us here do not take pictures by three (3 persons in a pic) because they believe that the one in the middle will be the first one to die.

- we have this procedure called "tawas" where a "mananawas"(usually an old man/woman who do the procedure) uses a candle and water to determine the cause of the sickness. (i don't know if this is effective though)

[yumisan]

nothing really weird actually..just a few examples what we pratice here

in the house...
wash your feet and face before going to bed and wash your leg before entering the house.well,it believe that washing your face and legs keep nightmares away.i don't know whether is true or not.

another one is don't sit on the pillow or books.don't ask me why.i just get scolding from my mom if i sit on it.can't really explain it because i actually don't really understand the believe that my mom said to me.

in the culture...
hmn..don't go near banana trees especially during the night.it is said to be the home of ghost or the tree is alive.can't really remember which one.
some said that if you smell jasmine flower or a certain flower which i can't really remember whether it is during the day or night,don't say anything about it or turn back to find the smell,just keep on walking straight.it is believe that a ghost is following and if you turn back or said it...the ghost might haunt and follow you.don't know whether is true anot because it is one of the culture in my country.