On Friday, Reddit user u/dunjabgd asked people, "What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?"
It led to people sharing things that are super specific to their country/region — things you probably never knew. Here's what people said:
2. Australia:
"You go to a hardware store and will sometimes leave with a sausage sizzle. Yep, they're sold in hardware stores."
4. Denmark:
"If you haven’t gotten married before the age of 25, you’ll get tied to a streetlight and get showered with cinnamon. It’s common to see big orange spots on the ground around streetlights. It’s a very old tradition, and we don’t actually expect people to get married before 25, but the tradition still goes on."
5. New Zealand:
"It is normal to be barefoot in public — in the mall, the supermarket, fast-food places, etc. It's even normal for kids to go to primary school barefoot. It's become a point of national pride for some people."
6. Spain:
"If you ever find yourself surrounded by three or more Spaniards and want to start a huge debate, you only have to ask, 'With or without onion?' You don't need to specify what — they'll all know instantly what you're talking about. In the highly unlikely event that they all were in agreement, there is a follow-up question guaranteed to succeed: 'Raw egg or fully cooked?' You'll have a massive argument going on in no time! What can I say? We take potato omelet very seriously."
8. Venezuela:
"We scream when we cut the birthday cake in Venezuela. It is expected to be a blood-curdling scream, and people laugh at you and ridicule you if it wasn't loud or scary enough. Also, our birthday song is like two minutes long."
9. Brazil:
"I found out that brushing my teeth in a public bathroom was strange outside of Brazil."
11. Germany:
"Throwing porcelain, ceramic pots, and other things in front of the bride-to-be's house a day or two before the wedding in order to break them into shards. It is said that these shards bring luck. Anything that breaks can be thrown, except for mirrors, since breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck, according to superstition. Also, calling people out if they don't maintain eye contact when clinking glasses. It is said that people who look away will have seven years of bad sex."
12. Norway:
"Talking to anyone in the public (on buses, on streets, etc.) is avoided as much as possible, and we avoid strangers as much as we can. If we're on the bus, whenever a new passenger comes in, we pray to God that they don't sit next to us because we enjoy our privacy. We want to sit alone and enjoy music/movie/staring out the window, knowing that the presence of another person is nonexistent. So Norwegians were always prepared for battling COVID-19."
14. United States:
"It's normal to eat extremely sugary desserts for breakfast. Donuts, most cereals, Pop-Tarts — all contain huge amounts of sugar and often little nutrition. There is literally Oreo cookie cereal that kids eat for breakfast."
15. India:
"Touching feet of our elders is very common in India. It is a mark of respect."
16. UK:
"It's normal for cats to be able to come and go from the house as they please, outside of dense city centers. Generally, we feel sorry for a cat that is always kept inside, trapped and unable to roam, like cats naturally do. There have been TV shows about domestic cats' habits, and they regularly have a mile-wide territory in the suburbs, and 5 miles or more in the countryside."
There you have it! If you have anything super specific to your country, let me know about it in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.