Strange cultural customs around the world

The world is full of unique cultures, with strange and sometimes unimaginable customs.

Taarof:This is a gesture of respect in Iran, although it is usually refused. For example, in some areas, a shopkeeper will refuse to accept money from a customer of higher social status. However, if the buyer insists on paying, the shopkeeper may refuse several times before accepting. This custom can be quite confusing for first-time visitors.

Mano Po:This is a gesture of respect for elders. People bow their heads, take the elder’s hand and press it against their forehead. This custom is mainly found in the Philippines, some parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. This gesture is often performed at family gatherings for children to ask for blessings from elders.

Bayanihan:One of the unique aspects of Filipino culture is “bayanihan” – the moving of an entire house to another location. Villagers will gather, lift up the house and move it to a new location to avoid floods, landslides or simply to have better neighbors. “Bayanihan” is common in rural areas where houses are made of lightweight materials such as bamboo and wood.

Henna Drawing:Muslim weddings are traditionally celebrated with rituals and traditions that date back hundreds of years. Two nights before the wedding, women in the bride’s family paint the bride’s hands, arms, and feet with henna designs that symbolize her maturity as a woman. The designs are also believed to bring the bride luck and fertility.

Mudra:Mudras are hand gestures of Buddhist and Hindu culture, primarily in India. Over 500 different meanings are expressed through the way a person moves his or her hands and fingers. These movements allow the practitioner to control the flow of energy in the body and focus on a particular goal. These movements appear in statues, paintings, dances, plays, yoga, and meditation techniques.

Late: In many parts of the world, arriving late to social gatherings can be considered rude, but not in South America. In Chile, if a host invites guests to dinner at 8:00 p.m., guests should arrive at 8:15 p.m. or even 8:30 p.m. Arriving on time or earlier will leave the host unprepared and the guest will be seen as too “eager.” In Ecuador, arriving 15-20 minutes late means “on time.”

Drinking rules in Russia:There are many drinking etiquettes in Russian culture, for example: you should not put your empty glass down on the table after a toast, but rather drink it down and turn it upside down. Being late means having to drink a full glass. Furthermore, if you hold an empty glass while toasting, you are punished by drinking the entire bottle.

Tooth Fairy:In Greece and Mauritania, children do not place their teeth under their pillows and wait for the tooth fairy to collect them, but throw them hard on the roof for good luck and good health. Malaysian children bury their teeth in the ground, believing that what is part of the body must return to the earth. In Türkiye, parents may use their child’s lost baby teeth to express their wishes for the child’s future; for example, if they want their child to become a doctor, they may bury the tooth near a hospital.

Seppuku:Seppuku was a central part of bushido, the code of the samurai; disembowelment was a way for warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands and to reduce their humiliation. Samurai could also be ordered to disembowel themselves by their daimyo. Later, disgraced samurai were allowed to disembowel themselves instead of being executed in the usual manner. Since the main purpose of the ritual was to protect honor, non-samurai were never ordered to perform it or were ordered to do so. Female samurai only performed disembowelment with permission.

Haka:This is a tradition of the Maori people of New Zealand. These movements include facial expressions, roaring, screaming, stomping, chest thumping and tongue sticking out to intimidate opponents. Today, New Zealand's national athletes still perform this tradition, especially the rugby and cricket teams.

According to http://news.zing.vn