Traditions, cultures, customs, people, and languages, they keep on changing with the different regions of the world. They might change due to change in countries, change in religions, change in geographical areas in a single country, etc. Different societies have varying cultures and follow different traditions with respect to multiple things like clothing, festivals, food habits, and many others.

You might have noticed that Indians join their hands to greet people and say Namaste, on the other hand, Japanese greet others by bowing. Similarly, French people greet others by kissing both the cheeks of the person while Americans prefer a handshake to greet someone. This is one of the examples of how cultural traditions differ from one country to another.

One of the major reasons for having these different traditions is the learning they are given since birth. What a child sees is what he/she will turn into, and by seeing a particular practice and looking people believing them one automatically starts practicing them. Let’s take another example here and understand things in a better way.

Suppose you are an Indian, where touching a woman is not a sign of respecting her, decides to travel to France where people find it completely normal to kiss each other’s cheeks while greeting someone. A lady from Indian society and following Indian beliefs is surely going to find it wired when a guy will approach her for a cheek kiss to greet her. But, it is their normal way of expressing happiness that they get when they meet someone and is not at all a wired tradition.

If you don’t want yourself to be in such a situation while traveling around the world, then it would be highly recommended to go through the following mentioned interesting traditions around the planet so that you will know such cultural traditions beforehand.

20 Interesting Cultural Traditions

Knowing the various traditions from multiple nations is important so that you never end up being considered disrespectful or rude to someone either while visiting other countries or when hosting international friends. So, here are a few most fascinating customs for you all.

Russia 🇷🇺

Red is considered to be the color of love but it is not the case in Russia. When you presenting flowers to a Russian, make sure that red carnations are a taboo in Russia. This flower is supposed to be presented either on the graves or to the war survived veterans. Similar goes for the yellow-colored flowers as they represent the end of a relationship or break-up. So, be really careful while choosing a flower for your Russian client or friend.

China 🇨🇳

Even after being an open market for the west, China is still serious about its cultural traditions. It is impossible to erase local traditions from a Chinese individual because they have been practicing these traditions for so many years. China is counted among the oldest civilizations around the globe and the customs they follow have been handed over to them from many generations. Most of the Chinese are superstitious and have their own beliefs for certain things. 

One such thing is gifts. Chinese are super selective while giving gifts to others. It is considered bad to present white flowers as a gift to a Chinese. As we Americans related white as a symbol of innocence, peace, and purity, the Chinese relate it with death and ghosts. Similarly, gifting clocks, handkerchief, umbrella, gifts with a set of four, green hat, shoes are also considered bad.

Chinese relates the clock to death, a gift set of 4 is bad because 4 is a bad number which represents death, the handkerchief to farewell, and the umbrella and shoes as a sign of ending relationships.

The numbers 4, 14 and 24 are associated with death for Cantonese-speaking Chinese people, as the words for these numbers sound like the words for “death”, “must die” and “easy to die”, respectively. 

Egypt 🇪🇬

Have you ever been to your friend’s place for dinner? It is absolutely normal for you to ask for some extra salt to add to the food you have been served. But, it’s okay until you are not in Egypt. Egyptians take asking for salt as an insult. It is considered that when a guest asks for salt to add to the food they have been repulsed by the taste of the food served by the hosts.

Skip the Salt in Egypt

 Norway 🇳🇴

Eating your food with bare hands is acceptable in many cultures. For example, in Indian culture, children are taught how to eat with their hands without using a spoon, fork, or knife. But, when it comes to Norway, bare hand eating is not at all acceptable. You have brush up your table manners and practice eating with knife and fork neatly. Norway is a country, were using a spoon, fork, and knife is a must and bare hand eating is not tolerable. People in Norway are so particular about the table manners that they even eat sandwiches using a fork and a knife.

Netherlands 🇳🇱

China and the Netherlands are two different countries with completely different cultural trends, traditions, and customs. But one thing which is common in these two countries is gifting limitations. The Netherlands doesn’t find it good to receive gifts that are sharp and pointed. Gifting scissors or kitchen knife set is not at all recommended in this country. Sharpe objects are considered unlucky by the Dutch. Meanwhile, in China, the same gifts are considered as the person who wants to cut ties with them.

Greece 🇬🇷

You might have heard that keeping your baby teeth under the pillow will give you money or good luck in exchange by the tooth fairy. Your parents have taught you the same and you are also doing the same with your children. But this is not the case with Greek children. They are not told to keep their tooth under the pillow while sleeping instead they are asked to toss the tooth on the roofs. This tradition is linked to have a healthy tooth for the baby and also brings good luck for the family.

Hungary 🇭🇺

Can you imagine a celebration when you have drinks in your hand, saying cheers, but you can’t clink your glasses with others? It seems like an incomplete celebration to others but not to the people living in Hungary. Well, the reason for not doing so has a long history. In 1849, the Hungarian forces were badly defeated by the Austrian forces and they witnessed the generals and officials of Austria celebrating their victory over Hungary by clinking their glasses. After seeing this they decided not to clink their glasses while having a drink. This continued for 150 years and at last, the vow ended in the year 1999. But, until now, Hungarians continue this custom because it more like a cultural tradition for them now.

Bolivia 🇧🇴

It is quite common in the United States to go on office lunch or dinners and keep discussing the work at these parties. But Bolivia is a country where discussing work or business during lunch/ dinner parties or at any other social occasion is a big no. The people in Bolivia believe that such parties and occasions are for the betterment or improvement of personal relationships and not for discussing business. They understand the importance of professional and personal life and don’t want you to just an employee of the office. You can openly discuss your family with your Bolivian colleagues and boss at office parties.

Turkey 🇹🇷

Splitting bills at a restaurant is completely fine in most of the cultures in the world. But it is not acceptable when it comes to the beautiful country of Turkey. Paying half of the bill is generally considered polite but on the other hand, it is making your host offended. Keeping this in mind, splitting bills is not considered as a good thing here and is more related to insulting your host. Although, you can reciprocate the same by inviting the host to lunch or dinner so that you will get a chance to pay for them.

South Korea 🇰🇷

Pen inks are available in multiple colors and it is quite common to use all of them while writing, doodling, drawing, and other purposes. In some countries, it is completely normal for school students to use multiple colored inks while writing their school assignments. On the other hand, many countries also have a defined ink color for certain higher designations as well. For some people, it doesn’t matter to them at all with what color ink you are writing their name until the name is correctly spelled. But none of this applies in South Korea, where using red ink for writing names of your friends, family, or known ones is not acceptable. As per their customs, writing red ink symbolizes death and thus not preferred to be used for writing names.

Finland 🇫🇮

Visiting a sauna is a personal choice. People prefer going to the sauna and believe that it is favorable for removing stress and relaxing. In many countries, it is no less than a way to socialize. The people of Finland think the same way. But, are you going to find it wired if your business client invites you for a sauna after a meeting? Well, most of the people will but this is not the case with Finns. If your business counterpart is inviting you to the sauna after an official meeting then it means that your meeting is successful and the client is ready to work with you.

Australia 🇦🇺

Where do you prefer sitting in a taxi after hiring it? We all have seen this in movies that people take a ride in a taxicab sitting at the back. As per what we all have been taught or what we see is the person hiring the taxi or cab sits at the back. But this is not true with the Australian. It is considered to be snobbish in Australia to sit at the back and letting the driver sit alone at the front. The Australian population often prefers sitting in front next to the cab driver.

Mexico 🇲🇽

Shoving one’s face onto their birthday cake is kind of a trend these days. Your friends or family members do so for fun and entertainment purposes. But it is a serious cultural tradition in Mexico. Any birthday celebration is incomplete without shoving the birthday person’s face onto the cake. There is no chance that the person can get angry because it is not alone fun but a culture. The birthday celebrations in Mexico do have a proper procedure. Initially, they brought cake and present it to the individual celebrating his/ her birthday. The person blows the candles off and everyone sings the birthday song. The person is allowed to have a piece of cake and then as expected someone will shove his/ her face on the cake.

Nicaragua 🇳🇮

It is very normal to point to something or someone using your hands. Pointing things or people with hands is considered fine in multiple cultures around the world. But Nicaragua takes this gesture game to another level. They use lips instead of using an index finger or thumb for pointing things. It is hard to imagine how can a person points with their lips, but it started with puckering up. This lip pointing technique is generally used to indicate something happening nearby.

The United States 🇺🇸

Tipping is considered to be an odd custom related to the United States. Most of the countries either don’t have a tipping culture at all or tip a smaller amount only, but this is not the case with the United States. In the US, tipping is a must at most of the restaurants. The culture started at a good note to give some extra help to the restaurant staff as their wages are low and on the other hand, the staff also does their best to serve the customers. People usually end up giving 10% to 20% of the bill amount as tips.

Malaysia 🇲🇾

Most of the countries find it rude to point someone or something with the index finger. Many cultures don’t consider it a good thing or a nice way to point out things. Malaysia is also one of these countries and finds pointing with index finger incredibly offensive. They prefer doing the same thing with a thumb instead of an index finger as they believe it is a more polite way to point things.

Japan 🇯🇵

Every culture has its own rules and table etiquettes. In most western cultures, making noises while eating food is not acceptable and is considered rude. Meanwhile, when it comes to Japan slurping while eating noodles is completely fine. People from other cultures eat noodles by twirling them on the folk before they put it in their mouth. But in the Japanese culture, making a slurping sound while having noodles indicates that you are enjoying your meal and you are happy with it.

The United Kingdom 🇬🇧

In the UK, it is a tradition for a newly married couple to freeze the top layer of their wedding cake and to eat it after one year of their marriage on their first wedding anniversary. This custom is linked to bringing good luck to the couple. To make sure that the cake doesn’t spoil, all the wedding cakes are made with alcohol-soaked fruitcake topped with royal icing.

Italy 🇮🇹

There are a lot of cultural traditions that are linked to food. One such belongs to Italy where Catholics prefer eating a wafer with unleavened bread during the time on Holy Communion. It is believed that because of the process of transubstantiation, they assume that they are consuming the body of Jesus Christ.

Spain 🇪🇸

One world-famous culture of Spain is the La Tomatina festival. It is the festival where tons of tomatoes are thrown on each other by the participating people. This festival is so popular that now tourists from around the world come to attend it. It takes place in Bunol once every year.

Traditions, cultures, and languages play a very important role in our life. It is good only to have knowledge about as many traditions and to know multiple languages. The translation is key here that plays a vital role in making foreigners understand a certain culture and language. Connect with Click For Translation for your translation needs.