INDIA: In Sholapur, India, an unbelievable non-religious ceremony takes place every year. Babies are dropped from a 15m tower without any safety string tied to their bodies. They free fall straight into the hands of the people who wait below with a bed sheet. The people of Sholapur are clueless about the purpose behind this fearful act. Some say, it’s for good health while others say it is for good luck for the future of the child.
JAPAN: Never send Red Christmas cards to anyone in Japan. Sending red Christmas cards constitutes bad etiquette since, in Japan, funeral notices are customarily printed in red. This is one mix up you do not want to get yourself into.
SPAIN: Goose Day, as the locals of Spain know it, takes place in Lekeitio. A goose is hanged from a rope over a harbour while men pass by on a boat and try to grab the poor animal. They are lifted up and repeatedly plunged into the water until they successful pull off the neck of the goose. This is absolutely horrible and so cruel.
POLAND: According to beliefs in Poland, at Easter if you swallow a willow catkin from a branch that has been consecrated by a priest, it would bestow good health upon you.
UKRAINE: In Ukraine, it is customary to decorate the Christmas tree with artificial spiders and webs. Seeing a spider or a web on Christmas morning is considered as a good charm.
RUSSIA: The men get together and prepare a bottle of vodka for every three men. They then start to drink until one of the men falls. If you refuse to drink, this is an insult to the rest of the men.
CHINA: In southwest China’s Sichuan province, the ancient ethnic minority group, the Bo people hung coffins of their dead on the sides of the cliffs, a practice that has been in place for nearly 3000 years. A similar culture was practiced in Indonesia and Philippines.
GREEK: In Greek tradition, it is customary for the Greeks to spit three times on the face of a person who give a