15 TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF THE WORLD (VERY RARE) - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The world is a very large and varied place. Despite the fact that many countries share similar customs and ways of living, there are still corners in which the way their inhabitants behave is totally different from everything we are used to.

Even in the 21st century, many cultures and peoples throughout the planet have ways of acting capable of leaving us speechless when we hear about them. Today we bring you a list with some of the traditions and customs of the world that are most striking for their uniqueness and originality. All of them are completely true, and they are still practiced today in some corners of our planet.

1- Put on some bullet ant gloves

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In many parts of the world, boys and adolescents who are entering sexual maturity have to undergo a special ritual before they can be considered men. There are many variants of this practice, carried out in tribes and in some traditional cultures. However, few versions are as brutal as the one carried out by the Satere - Mawe tribe, in the Brazilian part of the Amazon.

For members of this small population, a boy cannot become a man until he is able to overcome this painful ritual. When he reaches sexual maturity, the young man has to venture into the jungle with the tribal shaman and other children his age to find bullet ants, the insects with the most painful sting on the entire planet.

When enough bullet ants have been found, the shaman lulls them to sleep with a herbal preparation and places them inside a kind of glove, with all the stingers pointing into the glove. When the effect of the herbs wears off, the insects wake up and go into a very aggressive state.

To become men, the children of the Satere - Mawe tribe have to put their hand inside the glove and stay in it for ten minutes, while performing a ritual dance to ignore the pain. This practice has to be carried out 20 times before the rest of the indigenous people accept the young man as a true adult.

2- Throwing water at the Songkran Festival

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Thailand is undoubtedly one of the most exotic places in the world. This Southeast Asian country offers a great mix of cultures: it is western enough that travelers are comfortable in it, but at the same time it still retains much of its essence and ancient traditions.

One of the most peculiar customs that are carried out in Thailand is Songkran, a festival with which the inhabitants of the country celebrate their new year. However, do not expect to enjoy it in January: following the lunar calendar, this unique holiday occurs in the month of April.

But what exactly is Songkran? Traditionally, during the days when it takes place, families would come together to celebrate their ties, pray and reflect on their lives. One of the most important traditions in the past was to pour water on the hands of the oldest members of the family, as a show of respect for them.

However, the practice was changing little by little; And today, Songkran is famous because during the days when it takes place the streets of major Thai cities become a real battlefield. Both children and adults roam the towns armed with guns and water balloons, and even buckets full of liquid, trying to get everyone they see wet as much as possible.

If you are ever in Thailand during Songkran days, don't forget to leave any valuables at home, because it's impossible not to get completely soaked. The best thing you can do if you decide to join is to buy a squirt gun in one of the many street stalls that sell them, and enjoy this peculiar tradition to the fullest.

3- Eat the ashes of the dead

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All cultures in the world have some special ritual to bury deceased people or say goodbye to them for the last time. However, few are so strange to outside observers as that of the Yanomami, a tribe that lives in the Amazonian territory of Brazil and Venezuela.

When one member of the tribe dies, the rest burn their body. However, instead of burying the ashes or disposing of them, their family and friends mix them with a vegetable soup, which is later drunk. The Yanomami believe that by ingesting a person's body, they will never completely disappear, and their spirit will live within them forever.

For this tribe, letting a body decompose on the ground is a horrible thing. The dead have to be cremated as soon as possible, and their souls will not rest until their remains are safe within the bodies of their loved ones. Only in this way can the spirits be prevented from returning from beyond to torment the rest of the indigenous people.

4- Carrying a pregnant woman on burning coals

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China is one of the most peculiar superstitious countries in the world. One of the most striking in the eyes of the rest of the planet is the ritual that is carried out in many areas of its territory to ensure that pregnant women have a simple and painless delivery.

The tradition is as follows: the husband must carry his pregnant wife in his arms, and run on a bed of burning coals carrying her. The belief behind this rite is that the physical suffering of the man will diminish the one that the woman will have to suffer during childbirth.

5- Walking statues of giant penises in the Kanamara Matsuri

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Can you imagine that, for one day, your city was filled with images and statues of penises? This is what happens in the Kanamara Matsuri, which can be translated as "festival of the penis." Every year, on the first Sunday in April, the city of Kawasaki fills with visitors from all over the world who come to contemplate this strange Japanese tradition.

The Kanamara Matsuri emerged as a fertility ritual of the Shinto religion. However, over the years it has ended up becoming a ritual in favor of sex and sexual diversity, although the organizers remain monks and believers. During this day, the city is filled with statues and photographs of penises, and even sweets and dishes in the shape of male genitalia are cooked.

The origin of this tradition is also quite peculiar. Legend has it that the city was attacked by a demon that possessed women's vaginas, and ate men's penises.

To combat him, a girl asked a blacksmith to forge an iron penis, with which she managed to break the demon's teeth and make it flee. In this way, the Kanamara Matsuri was born.

6- Kidnap a girl as a token of love

There are many ways to express romantic feelings for our partner or the person who attracts us; but without a doubt, one of the most peculiar and worrying is the one practiced by Romanians of gypsy origin. In some areas of this country, when a man falls in love with a woman, he can kidnap her to show his affection.

However, this disturbing tradition does not end here: its practitioners consider that if the man manages to keep her kidnapped for five days, he has proven his worth and therefore has earned the right to marry her. Apparently, the opinion of women is not very important to this town.

7- Dancing with the dead

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The Famadihana festival is a tradition celebrated in both urban and rural areas of countries such as Madagascar. However, it is especially popular with the tribal populations where it exists. It is a funerary ritual used to celebrate the rebirth of the dead, a typical belief of the religions of this area.

During the Famadihana, family and close friends gather in the crypts where their ancestors are buried. There, they unearth the remains of the deceased, wrap them in fresh cloth, and dance with the bodies throughout the city to the rhythm of happy music.

After several days of dancing and celebrations, the bodies are returned to their graves, where they will remain for as long as it takes until the festival is held again. In Madagascar, for example, the Famadihana takes place once every seven years.

8- Throwing milk teeth from the roof

Most Western countries have some kind of tradition related to the loss of baby teeth in children. Almost all of them have to do with leaving the tooth under the pillow, for the Tooth Fairy or the Tooth Fairy to take it away. However, in Greece the custom is quite different.

Unlike what happens in the rest of the western world, when a Greek child loses a tooth, his parents encourage him to climb on the roof of their house and throw it into the street from there.

Tradition says that by doing this, the final tooth will grow healthy and of the correct size. The side effect is that it is necessary to look at the sky if you pass through the streets of Greece, to avoid a tooth hitting you on the head inadvertently.

9- Make your baby sleep in a cardboard box

Finland is one of the countries with the strangest traditions in Europe. Some of them, such as the contest that seeks the man who can carry his wife further in his arms, have become famous all over the world.

However, others that could be very useful everywhere are relatively unknown. This is the case of this custom related to newborn babies.

In this northern European country, when a baby is born, the government gives parents the choice between a check for 140 euros or a box full of items to help them raise the child well. Among other things, the box contains clothes, diapers and blankets.

What is most peculiar about this tradition is that the box also includes a mattress, which can be used as a basic design crib. The idea behind the custom is to give all children the same living conditions from the beginning, no matter what social class they belong to. The practice has been so successful that 95% of families choose the box instead of the check.

10- Cut your fingers as a sign of pain

The death of a family member is always painful; but it is much more so for the Dani tribe in Indonesia. In addition to the pain that is unavoidable to feel in such a situation, some members of this small indigenous society express their discomfort by cutting off the last phalanx of one of their fingers.

This practice, which is carried out mainly by women, aims to keep the ghosts of the ancestors of the tribe satisfied. Today, ritual cutting is still practiced, although not as often as it once was.

The process that the Dani follow is the same that has been in force for many centuries. First, the finger is tied tightly with a thread for thirty minutes, in order to numb it. The cut is then made, and the stump is burned to accelerate the creation of scar tissue. Fortunately, this practice is being done less and less.

11- Admire the floating lanterns of the Loi Krathong

We have already mentioned Songkran, the New Year festival celebrated in Thailand. However, this festival is not the only famous one in this Southeast Asian country: if you are a lover of festivals and traditional practices, you cannot miss the Loi Krathong, celebrated during the month of November in the main cities of the territory.

Loi Krathong, or "Floating Banana Basket Festival," is a traditional festival in which Thais thank the river goddess, Pra Mae Khongkha, apologize for their sins, and show their respect for her. In addition, they also take advantage of the holiday to make wishes for the following year.

In most cities in Thailand, the main tradition of the festival is to float small baskets made of banana leaves. However, in the town of Chiang Mai, the inhabitants also throw thousands of flying lanterns into the sky, which light up the night and attract thousands of visitors every year.

12- Offer the body of a relative to the vultures

Most cultures around the world show their respect for the dead in some way, be it by burying their bodies, incinerating them, or performing some kind of ritual. However, in Tibet there is a belief that a person's corpse is just an empty carcass after death, and therefore there is no need to preserve it.

In some areas of the Tibet region, when a person dies, their body is cut to pieces by their relatives and loved ones, and the pieces are left in the open for the vultures to eat. In this way, it is believed that animals will take their souls to heaven, where they will wait until they can reincarnate again.

13- Drink bear blood to bless humanity

In some regions of Russia and Japan live the Ainu tribe, who worship the bears that live in the tundra as if they were gods who walk among humans. However, their way of worshiping these animals is quite cruel and bloody.

During the winter, the Ainu look for caves where there are hibernating bear cubs. When they find them, they kidnap the small animals, and raise them in captivity for two years.

At the end of this period, the beasts are sacrificed, and the members of the tribe drink their blood, eat their meat, and place their skull on a spear, which they wrap with the skin removed from their corpse.

Why carry out such a cruel practice? The Ainu believe that in this way, they are showing their respect for bears, and getting their spirit to bless the members of their tribe and the rest of humanity.

14- Mutilate with daggers so that sins are forgiven

The Muslim religion has many variations, and one of those with the strangest traditions is the Shia. This "sect" within Islam practices the event known as Ashura, in which a group of men stab daggers into their heads voluntarily in an attempt to pay for their sins and ask forgiveness for the mistakes of their people.

This tradition has its origin in the Battle of Karbala, which occurred in the 7th century. In it, Imam Hussein, one of Muhammad's grandsons, was assassinated. During Ashura, the Shiites try to atone for the shame they feel for not having been present that day to save the descendant of the prophet.

15- Leave the elderly on an iceberg

We close this list of strange traditions with the ancient funeral rite of the Eskimos. Although it is barely taking place, this practice fascinated anthropologists and scholars around the world when it was first discovered.

In ancient times, when a member of an Eskimo tribe reached an advanced age and could no longer fend for himself, his relatives would take him to a floating iceberg and leave him there to die alone.

The reason was that they believed that death should be accepted with dignity, and they preferred that the elderly die without ever placing a burden on their loved ones.