The customs and traditions of different peoples of the world are extremely diverse, interesting, and amazing. What seems familiar and normal in one country may seem wild and strange in another. And vice versa.

That is why it is interesting to know what customs other peoples have … After reading this article, you will be not only surprised but even shocked by some traditions that are acceptable to other inhabitants of our planet.

Strange customs and traditions of the peoples of the world.

● If you go to some temples in Karnataka (India), you will be immediately ordered to stop, lie on the floor and lie down. Believers unload the remains of food from the table of Brahmins – the highest, Indian caste of priests. All the castes below the Brahmins take part in felting, and it is believed that this felting can cure skin diseases. The ritual has been performed for over 500 years, but now it is on the verge of being banned. Although restrictions have been imposed on some temples in recent years, they have had to be lifted due to protests by devout Hindus.

● In Tibet, there is a funeral practice in which the corpse is incised in certain places and left on top of the mountain to be torn apart by the elements and wild animals, especially birds of prey. Only criminals and other guilty people can bury in the ground, as is customary in our country. Most Tibetans are followers of the Buddhist tradition that the human body is just a vessel that can be destroyed. At the moment, this practice is prohibited, but with the consent of the family, such funerals can be organized.

● For 500 years, parishioners in a Muslim shrine in western India have had a tradition of dropping children from a 15-meter tower for good luck. The children are lifted to the top of the tower and dropped on a taut sheet held by the men below, and then the child is given to her mother. Parents proudly throw their children off the tower because they believe that this ritual will bring their offspring good luck, health, and longevity.

● In Japan, a special ritual is held, the main task of which is to increase land fertility and fertility in the region. To do this, people carry a phallus made of wood around the city. Its size reaches 2.5 m and weighs more than 20 kg.

● In the islands of Polynesia, it is customary to spend a wedding night with your friends. This custom is associated with the belief that a woman for deprivation of innocence sheds blood, which is imbued with demons. Therefore, all the men present in the order of seniority enter into sexual intercourse with her in order to cleanse her. The husband is admitted to the wife’s body last. Women at this time dance and sing around the bride.

● In Kenya, in the provinces where the Maasai live, to be recognized as a teenager, you must either push the rhino three times or pull the lion by the base of the tail.

● The death of the Maasai is unnatural, so someone is to blame for it (the reptile speculated). Therefore, the deceased is placed under a tree with his back to the trunk, the “suspects” sit around, and sit (sometimes more than one day) until the corpse falls in someone’s direction. Whom the dead man points to, he is guilty of his death and pays a fine to the tribe and family of the deceased.

● In one of the “Bantoid” tribes of tropical Africa, if a guy makes an offer to a girl, he gives her two cola nuts (this is their currency), if the girl does not agree, she is obliged to give him three cola nuts. You can start a business, set up a half-tribe against you to just hate, and collect profits).

● In the same tribes, the rite of initiation looks like this – the subject squats down, all the unmarried girls line up in front of him, and the shaman pierces his paraphernalia with a blunt, round stick. The boy is in great pain, but if he stops smiling and somehow expresses suffering from his face, no girl of the tribe will marry him. Type sucker and weak.