general Your Weird Cultures!

[Vainamoinen 28]

Hi everyone! I was thinking about the Finnish sauna, and came up with this.

 

Post something you do in culture that seems weird to others!

 

For me it would be the sauna, the one I go is both men and women. And there is no swimwear or any thing. When we in sauna we slap ourself with birch branches.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,426]

Hello there another Finn

 

Anyway, I would say mosquito hunting(though as far as I know, this one has stopped), mobile phone throwing, swamp football, rubber boot throwing and  Wife Carrying World Championship, although they are more town/city specific things, I think they should be mentioned.

 

 

Another thing might be our love for coffee, I don't know how weird it is to others(for obvious reasons) but still.

Edited March 7, 2017 by The Cerberus

[Ando333 135]

I can't imagine anything weird from here to be honest. In fact, I think our weird thing is that we don't do any particular thing at all.

 

Days like Halloween, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving and pretty much anything like that doesn't exist here. This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I'm asked about any cultural particularity from here. Sorry to disappoint.

[SFyr 1,982]

Hard to name something odd that's normal where you live, but I know some random US things that are a bit odd to some:

 

Every year towards the middle/end of winter, we consult an ageless groundhog named Phil for a weather prediction for the following six weeks, who's taken care of by a group of well-dressed men called "the inner circle," who communicate with said groundhog.

 

We host competitions and have restaurants specializing in roadkill, or dead animals picked off the roads after being struck down by vehicles.

 

Canned processed cheese. Additionally, cheese is considered a flavor to some; wheels are hard to come by; and yellow/orange cheese is the default mental image most people here get of how cheese is supposed to look.

[Oleks 1,983]

Some holidays and traditions are weird here in Ukraine. For example, the Old New Year - the day when guys and grown men go from house to house early in the morning, throw seeds or grains all over the place and get money/drinks for that. 

Also, here we eat pork fat - fried, salted, baked, smoked or even pickled and raw. 

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

My family have long since gotten accustomed to the Canadian culture we've been a part of now for over twenty years, yet we do still embrace some aspects of the British culture that we come from. For instance, we can appreciate and understand British humour, something that Canadians don't seem to understand unless they were to watch enough British comedy and can figure out what certain terms mean.

[BlueStreak98 828]

We've got these weird people called bronies...  :-P 

 

In seriousness, though, Americans have a weird relationship with modesty. For example, you can't nurse your infant in the local shopping mall except in designated areas, but nobody bats an eye at 15 foot-tall posters of women in their underwear in the windows of some of the stores.

 

Competitive eating is something so ridiculous it could only have come from here.

 

I'm not sure if this counts, but a lot of people don't truly understand how nonexistent public transit is here. I live in a city of 800,000, I've lived near it my entire life, and I've never been on a city bus. And that's not unusual.

[cmarston1 5,951]

Well, it took me until 2016 for met to actually watch a Star Wars Movie (The Force Awakens to be specific), and given how prominent it has become in pop culture, the fact that I managed to go as long as I had without seeing one, can be considered pretty weird.

[Flutterbattyyy 330]

I never watched much TV as a child (born in '96, so I'm not that old). I only had local TV, so I never really watched shows like Pokemon, Spongebob, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Power Puff Girls, Avatar: TLA, Phineas and Ferb, Disney Channel shows, etc. (However, resort vacations were the rare exception, where they had cable.)

 

All the other shows I watched on VHS or DVDs from the library. (Shows like Winnie the Pooh, The Smurfs, G1 MLP (1980s), Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears..., etc. Most of all the kid shows I watched were from the late 70s to the early 90s. ...I had a rather innocent childhood. xD

 

 

In addition, I never watched many pop-culture movies until my High School years: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. (Still haven't seen Star Wars! lol.)

 

 

The thing is, I spent so much of my time either outside in the forest or backyard (climbing trees, playing in the mud, etc.) or playing with indoor toys (train sets, stuffed animal/plush fictional adventures, etc.) that I never had much time or interest for TV. xD

 

 

Now, of course, I've been in the slow process of catching up. But my outdoorsy-backyard-loving childhood has led me to have a tremendous love and obsession for hiking and the "real" outdoors, now that I am older. So, I am rather ok with it.

 

 

Speaking of odd cultural ideas, I would rather spend a night at a 5,000,000 star "hotel" in the wilderness than at a 5 star resort.  :-P

Edited March 8, 2017 by ElementalFluttershee

[Vainamoinen 28]

Another thing might be our love for coffee, I don't know how weird it is to others(for obvious reasons) but still.

Coffee is true..

After all, we are biggest consumer per person of coffee! XD

[RiseofSpectrum 359]

Companies in my country say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". But it isn't due to political correctness, it's to conveniently tie in with the New Year.

 

Everyone here knows the anthem by heart. Not because we're patriots, but because we really like soccer and always hear the anthem before the matches. Also, it's pretty much the first thing they teach us at elementary school.

 

In some countries, eating pork is forbidden. In others, people eat parts of the pork. In here, we eat the whole damn thing.

 

In many countries, the soccer club you have is the one from the area which you live in. In here, people choose one out of the three biggest. On a whole, these three clubs have about 9.5 million supporters. The remaining one million is divided between all the other clubs.

 

We're broke, but it doesn't matter, because we've always been broke.

 

We're not very respectable of road laws. Sometimes people pass the red signal, and if a cop spots you, you don't run away or stop immediately, you keep going on with your business while telling the police officer "it was red, but it wasn't RED-red". However, it's not as bad as Italy, seeing as we don't drive through the sidewalk... most of the times, anyway.

 

In many countries, the people don't enjoy cops beating up people, deeming it "police brutality", and it rarely happens. In here, while it doesn't happen very often, when it does, the people don't really mind, because the guy getting beat up "probably deserved it". I would like to note here, I don't really mind this happening anyway.

 

Cops are very laissez-faire in my country, but when they feel you step too much out of line, then they will act. What I mean by this? Well, you pass the red signal by accident, you're fine. You cross the road with no sidewalk, you're fine. You're insulting the police, you're screwed.

[Rick Sanchez 75]

as a hispanic person a lot of the stuff we do is pretty weird and mostly discipline related. and as you may have guessed, mostly shit parents do

- instead of spanking we get hit with shoes (mostly flip flops LOL)

- if you forget to take the poultry out of the freezer before your mom comes back there will be no supper and she will fold your ass like an omelette

- we like eating fried ice cream

- some people just straight up eat cheese by itself. not even a cheese stick, just straight up a block of cottage cheese with nothing else

- this isn't a weird cultural thing but tostones con salami frito y queso suave is the BOMB.COM and you need to try it at least once

Edited March 8, 2017 by des

[Once In A Blue Moon 894]

There is always a kettle in the workplace. Hot drinks are made everywhere work needs doing - obviously in offices etc., but also on building sites, fields in the middle of nowhere, armoured vehicles on military exercises* or even (anecdotally) whilst pinned by enemy machine gun fire and awaiting support. Where the British work, there is tea (and coffee. Not always biscuits mind, but hot drinks are very reliable.)

 

 

 

*boiling vessels that draw power from the vehicle's supply are standard in almost all vehicles.

Edited March 8, 2017 by Once In A Blue Moon

[Thuja 3,658]

​Most people find it weird that you leave smudging ashes at the front door or at least around it.  It's supposed to help keep away bad luck.  I live in an apartment now and some people tend to get mad that I'm "littering" by leaving my ashes outside, excuse me, would you throw away a cross into the trash after praying with it?  Thought not...

 

​There has to be food at EVERY event.  Funeral?  Food, lots of it.  Celebrating the Equinox or Solstice?  Where's the food?  Sweat-lodge?  There better be food after...  Not like little snack things or whatever but actual home cooking brought out, large plates of fry bread, soup, some sort of meat(probably something someone hunted recently, maybe duck or venison), some pies or other baked goods and maybe some cold salad thing.  It's not really considered a party unless everyone can sit down and eat loads of food, those are the best kind.  People tend to get a little insulted when you don't bring something if you can or at least help out with serving/ preparing the food for everyone else.

[Guest]

For me it would be the sauna, the one I go is both men and women. And there is no swimwear or any thing. When we in sauna we slap ourself with birch branches.

 

I was also going to mention the sauna, since I believe to others it might sound really weird to say something like "Alright, I'm going to go chill in a steamy hot room naked with other people". 

 

This probably counts too? The infamous Finnish personal space.

 

[Vainamoinen 28]

Wow, I actually didn't expect any repliy. Get 14 instead XD

is good start.

[Miles 2,512]

I live in the Midwest, specifically in central Illinois. One of the quirkiest parts of our culture would have to be our lawn mower poker runs. Now, here is the definition of a standard poker run:

 

"A poker run is an organized event where participants, usually using motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, boats, snowmobiles, horses, on foot or other means of transportation, must visit five to seven checkpoints, drawing a playing card at each one. The object is to have the best poker hand at the end of the run. Having the best hand and winning is purely a matter of chance. The event has a time limit, however the individual participants are not timed."

 

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poker_run

 

Now, with that in mind, replace all those vehicles with only riding lawn mowers.

 

In our town, once everyone has picked up all their cards, they ride uptown to one of our bars, and find who has the best hand. Then there's usually some kind of auction held, as per usual in a small rural town. Of course, during and following the event, there is usually a lot of drinking.

 

I've never taken part in them before, but my father has.