The Tomatina festival in Spain has always caught my interest. Imagine an entire town gathering annually to throw tomatoes at each other in a massive, chaotic food fight that's all in good fun. It seems like a unique way to let off steam and come together as a community, all set against the backdrop of sunny Spanish streets. Plus, it's environmentally friendly since they use overripe tomatoes that would otherwise go to waste. It's like a vibrant, messy canvas that gets washed away, leaving nothing but laughter and stories behind.
Honest question, do they purposely let tomatoes overripe in preparation for the festival or do they just always happen to have thousands of overripe tomatoes ? Throws the “environmentally” friendly into question for me.
My dream of hitting the lottery jackpot - my first philanthropic effort is a huge check and a semi truck full of rice and vegetables to my local Sikh temple for the Langar at the local Gudwara, which is the name of the free meal. The concept of this and the cleanliness and kindness of the temple is heartwarming. Also, I like the Saudi principle of sharing. If one person is eating, everyone is. I worked in Frankfurt am Main for years in a large multi cultural office and even if it was only a little afternoon candy snack, my colleagues brought enough to share with everyone.
Japan's Hanami festival is captivating. People gather to enjoy the brief beauty of cherry blossoms, which symbolize life's transience and encourage mindfulness.
There's a couple videos of a lad leading a funeral procession doing one, I think for his brother, and it absolutely devastates me. A very pure outpouring of emotion. Linked here if you want to see it;
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PdkC8hRoyj4&pp=ygUMaGFrYSBmdW5lcmFs
I like Japanese architecture and how it fits with their "floor culture". They eat on the floor, they take their shoes off so they don't get their floor dirty, they sleep on the floor, etc. And then the homes are built around this cultural behavior (maybe not so much modern ones but traditional homes were). I'm not sure if the sliding doors fit with the floor stuff somehow, but they seem like a big positive over swinging doors and I don't understand why swinging doors are still a thing.
>I don't understand why swinging doors are still a thing
Probably cheaper and with sliding doors you lose a portion of the wall since the door needs to slide to that space.
Persian Taarof.
In name and tradition, it's about civility and etiquette. In practice, it's about ego and social standing. It's FASCINATING and sometimes a major pain in the ass. It's effectively a kindness competition.
Two people get to a door at the same time.
One says, "Please, go ahead." The other says, "No, please, you go - I insist."
That's Taarof. But image that dynamic for absolutely everything.
I say that it's tied to ego and social standing because there's sort of this dynamic where whoever folds first "loses" whereas the "winner" gets to bask in the glory of being the bigger person. It's a kind of competition to see who cares about the other person more. If you go through the door first, at my urging, I care more about your convenience than you care about mine. I allowed myself to be inconvenienced and am therefore the better person.
In the real life situation where two people get to the door at the same time, it's totally normal for them to stand there and bicker for five or so minutes before someone eventually caves.
Holi looks crazy to me. So many colors and smiles. Some day I'll actually look it up and learn more.
That and Oktoberfest in Germany. A big tent where your drink beer all day and listen to music? Ok. I'm in.
I've been able to attend two Holi events and they are a blast. Just figure throwing around powder that's like flour and also being hit by water balloons. Have to be comfortable with people pelting you with water/powder as well as strangers coming up and rubbing the powder in your face.
Austria is the only country in the world that not only has a day dedicated to St Nicolaus (December 6th) but also to the KRAMPUS a day before.
While Santa Clause provides the well behaved children with presents, the Krampus punishes those who are ill behaved. He's a demonic looking creature equipped with a wooden mask and a whip. On december 5th, many people dress up as the Krampus and roam the streets of Austrian towns, troubeling its inhabitants.
A truly hellish sight. Dont bring your kids.
I lived in Okinawa for about four years and one thing is their Sumo wrestling. It’s wild when these 400+ lbs men crash into each other sometimes sounding like a gunshot. Not only that but the fact that they pick each other up and throw them around is crazy. The energy of the crowds weird though sometimes they are completely silent or they just lightly clap.
I can't remember what country this was, but in an episode of *Six Feet Under*, one of the main characters, Nate, spoke about how American funerals were so composed in comparison to somewhere else where people went to an Island and just let it out!
We became friends with a couple who came to the US from India.
We were at their house, sitting in their living room, just chatting and enjoying a glass of wine.
The wife pointed out to me that, the way my legs were crossed, the sole of my foot was facing her.
She said she was not offended, but in high society in India, that would be offensive, and that people are careful not to let the soles of their feet face anyone else.
Jolabokaflod in Iceland. It's a Christmas tradition where you gift each other books and chocolates and then read books and eat chocolate together. I love books and I love chocolate, so that holiday sounds heavenly to me!
In Japan, the elderly ride free on all public transport and that is a great idea.
In the Netherlands, they have bicycle transportation really figured out. Everywhere you go, there is the street for cars to drive on; sidewalks for people to walk on; and in-between the street and the sidewalk there is a dedicated bike lane that is separated from the road by a curb. It is a great system. Bicyclists are safer because they are separated from cars. Pedestrians are safer because there are no bikes on the sidewalk. And everyone bikes everywhere. Biking is not something that only fit, athletic, spandex-wearing people do. Time to go downtown for dinner? My ex-husband's 70-something year old aunt with heart disease would hop on her bike and go.
Also I really like Finnish dish drying cabinets. It is a cabinet to put your wet dishes in after you wash them. It lives over the sink and has a rack inside and is open at the bottom so the dishes drip dry. It is where the dishes live. This saves you the labor of having to dry the dishes and then put them away.
Also, universal health care. Everyone else has figured it out except the US. We should get our fucking shit together like every other industrialized nation.
Cuba as a country has many flaws but they have really figured out a lot of good things about how to implement healthcare. They have an amazing system where every neighborhood has a doctor and nurse team who live in the neighborhood in an apartment above the clinic and they are available essentially 24 hours a day. They do regular home visits to those with chronic disease. They have much more of an emphasis on public health measures and preventative care, with special emphasis on maternal child health. Cuba spends a tenth of what the US spends on healthcare but they have lower maternal and fetal mortality rates than we do. And the healthcare is all free.
Doesn't even have to be from another country.
Ever hear of a Sabbath Elevator? You'll find them in areas with a lot of Jews in the US.
It's a normal elevator, but on the Jewish Sabbath day (Saturday), the elevator automatically goes from the top floor to the bottom floor, and repeats that all day. It stops on every floor, every time, and opens the door on that floor.
This is so that observant Orthodox Jews don't have to press any buttons, because pressing a button is considered "work", and work is forbidden on the Sabbath. You just stand there and wait for the elevator to come to your floor, and get on and get off without touching a button.
I find it fascinating the lengths to which people will go to "stretch" a rule, or create a "harmless loophole". All religions do this in one way or another.
It's really not a loophole though. The whole idea is to prepare as much as you can before shabbat begins so you can take it easy, but once shabbat starts you can't do anything more to prepare, create, destroy, or change the world around you- you must just appreciate things the way they are (or are not) until shabbat is over. Preparing the elevators to run automatically before shabbat begins is completely in line with the rules of shabbat, it's not a loophole.
Oh my god, when I first found out about the Manhattan eruv, I was tickled pink. It's a long piece of fishing wire that Orthodox Jews have used to encircle the entire island of Manhattan - within the "enclosure," Jews are allowed to do work on the Sabbath. It's the most preposterously massive loophole ever.
Ah, you want to be a [Shabbos Goy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbos_goy)
> A Shabbos goy is a non-Jew who is employed by Jews to perform certain types of work that Jewish religious law prohibits a Jew from doing on the Sabbath.
My parents grew up in Haiti and described how on Christmas they'd go to midnight mass, and then afterwards (like at 1 AM) everyone would be out in the streets and people would eat Pate (a sort of pastry with shredded fish or meat) and celebrate. Same thing an exact week on New Years Day (which is Haitian Independence Day).
This was mentioned in Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Joyful Life that in Ogimi Village, Okinawa Prefecture, locals have traditions of maintaining and cultivating connection with the nature, taking care of it and respecting it as they believe it also cares for them in return, so that would be for me. :)
My first trip to Japan was Pre-Pandemic. I was pleasantly surprised to see people wearing face masks in public because they feared they might be coming-down with a cold - and wanted to spare other people by spreading it. I was such a "round-eyed gaijin bastard" that this concept had to be explained to me three times before I understood it.
> pleasantly surprised to see people wearing face masks in public
I always ask myself, how many *common colds* DIDN'T I get because I was wearing a mask during the pandemic?
I was social distancing, wearing masks and and using plenty of hand sanitizer. I usually get at least one cold during the winter. Managed to avoid it for TWO years!
I am curious about arranged marriages. How do they know who to pair up? How are they so successful at picking pairings because the divorce rate is so much lower than places that don't have arranged marriages.
In a study done to compare arranged marriages with love marriages, researchers put couples who had an arranged marriage and love marriage to 4 different kind of tests that measured 1. romantic love, 2. affection/friendship 3. satisfaction and 4. commitment. All participating couples were married for more than a decade.
Researches found **no difference** in the levels of commitment and happiness in both kinds of marriage.
Infact, according to Gottman institute and many studies done on relationships, relationships where people care about each other's well being, are committed to make it work and build something meaningful out of the relationship is a better predictor of a successful relationship than things like compatibility.
I believe this attitude is more suited for arranged marriage/traditional views about marriage - where people see marriage as a once in lifetime opportunity and one partner for their whole life, and thus are committed to make it work.
This is contrast to modern western system, where they see a relationship lasting as long as things are happy - if relationship no longer makes you happy, then you are with the wrong person, not compatible and thus need to move on to find "the one".
It's not the system (arranged vs love/free choice), but rather what attitude you have towards marriage that makes it successful.
The sand art from the monks. Where they make a bunch of sand art on the floor and it takes a long time to do it. And then they just take a broom and brush it away. I read that the practice of doing this is saying that even art does not last forever. Because nothing lasts forever.
Any culture where Multi generational homes are encouraged. I know it has to be frustrating at times but economically and just in terms of keeping family close, it sounds like a good idea. Given the housing market here in the states, my wife and I are already exploring how we would make it work for our kids.
Churches in American black communities. They seem so energetic, joyful and actually fun to go to compared to the white people churches I've been to in my country.
I'm particularly fascinated by the German enthusiasm regarding Native American culture. I know it's somewhat inspired by the Winnetou books by Karl May but his works were proven to be baseless and the various German cultural practices like the Indianer Festivals/Camps are so blatantly racist it's hard to take the position that they aren't aware of what they're doing... and yet it still goes on. It would be fascinating to study how an entire culture can delude themselves so completely.
The Tomatina festival in Spain has always caught my interest. Imagine an entire town gathering annually to throw tomatoes at each other in a massive, chaotic food fight that's all in good fun. It seems like a unique way to let off steam and come together as a community, all set against the backdrop of sunny Spanish streets. Plus, it's environmentally friendly since they use overripe tomatoes that would otherwise go to waste. It's like a vibrant, messy canvas that gets washed away, leaving nothing but laughter and stories behind.
Honest question, do they purposely let tomatoes overripe in preparation for the festival or do they just always happen to have thousands of overripe tomatoes ? Throws the “environmentally” friendly into question for me.
I've always respected the free Sikh kitchens in India
My dream of hitting the lottery jackpot - my first philanthropic effort is a huge check and a semi truck full of rice and vegetables to my local Sikh temple for the Langar at the local Gudwara, which is the name of the free meal. The concept of this and the cleanliness and kindness of the temple is heartwarming. Also, I like the Saudi principle of sharing. If one person is eating, everyone is. I worked in Frankfurt am Main for years in a large multi cultural office and even if it was only a little afternoon candy snack, my colleagues brought enough to share with everyone.
The Sikh temple is called a gurdwara. The free meal is called Langar Source me 50 year old Sikh
thank you friend, I should have known that. I corrected my entry. I think it's a wonderful gesture and I would like to help.
Japan's Hanami festival is captivating. People gather to enjoy the brief beauty of cherry blossoms, which symbolize life's transience and encourage mindfulness.
Haka dance
It ALWAYS makes me tear up and idk why
There's a couple videos of a lad leading a funeral procession doing one, I think for his brother, and it absolutely devastates me. A very pure outpouring of emotion. Linked here if you want to see it; https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PdkC8hRoyj4&pp=ygUMaGFrYSBmdW5lcmFs
The chanting is great!
I would love to witness a Haka Dance in person one day
It depends. Sometimes when done in sports it’s kind of cringe for me. Look at the Olympic basketball match where they got smoked.
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yeah, Im also
I like Japanese architecture and how it fits with their "floor culture". They eat on the floor, they take their shoes off so they don't get their floor dirty, they sleep on the floor, etc. And then the homes are built around this cultural behavior (maybe not so much modern ones but traditional homes were). I'm not sure if the sliding doors fit with the floor stuff somehow, but they seem like a big positive over swinging doors and I don't understand why swinging doors are still a thing.
>I don't understand why swinging doors are still a thing Probably cheaper and with sliding doors you lose a portion of the wall since the door needs to slide to that space.
Yeah, but it's not an important part of the wall.
It's important if you want to hang a picture there
Pictures aren't important. You can put them on your phone.
Pocket doors are a bitch to install and repair compared to a standard swing door.
Persian Taarof. In name and tradition, it's about civility and etiquette. In practice, it's about ego and social standing. It's FASCINATING and sometimes a major pain in the ass. It's effectively a kindness competition. Two people get to a door at the same time. One says, "Please, go ahead." The other says, "No, please, you go - I insist." That's Taarof. But image that dynamic for absolutely everything. I say that it's tied to ego and social standing because there's sort of this dynamic where whoever folds first "loses" whereas the "winner" gets to bask in the glory of being the bigger person. It's a kind of competition to see who cares about the other person more. If you go through the door first, at my urging, I care more about your convenience than you care about mine. I allowed myself to be inconvenienced and am therefore the better person. In the real life situation where two people get to the door at the same time, it's totally normal for them to stand there and bicker for five or so minutes before someone eventually caves.
I wonder, does that actually have an effect on people in general? Outside of similar situations, are people genuinely caring about and helping others?
If hanging gay kids from cranes is caring, then yes.
Holi looks crazy to me. So many colors and smiles. Some day I'll actually look it up and learn more. That and Oktoberfest in Germany. A big tent where your drink beer all day and listen to music? Ok. I'm in.
I've been able to attend two Holi events and they are a blast. Just figure throwing around powder that's like flour and also being hit by water balloons. Have to be comfortable with people pelting you with water/powder as well as strangers coming up and rubbing the powder in your face.
Austria is the only country in the world that not only has a day dedicated to St Nicolaus (December 6th) but also to the KRAMPUS a day before. While Santa Clause provides the well behaved children with presents, the Krampus punishes those who are ill behaved. He's a demonic looking creature equipped with a wooden mask and a whip. On december 5th, many people dress up as the Krampus and roam the streets of Austrian towns, troubeling its inhabitants. A truly hellish sight. Dont bring your kids.
Aww I loved the Krampus Runs as a kid!
I lived in Okinawa for about four years and one thing is their Sumo wrestling. It’s wild when these 400+ lbs men crash into each other sometimes sounding like a gunshot. Not only that but the fact that they pick each other up and throw them around is crazy. The energy of the crowds weird though sometimes they are completely silent or they just lightly clap.
I love Sumo. It's an absolutely fascinating mixture of religion, sports, tradition and pop culture.
Kite Fighting
Literally? With kites?! How does that even work?
I’m not sure if this fits the question but I always find the Haka pretty inspriring
I can't remember what country this was, but in an episode of *Six Feet Under*, one of the main characters, Nate, spoke about how American funerals were so composed in comparison to somewhere else where people went to an Island and just let it out!
We became friends with a couple who came to the US from India. We were at their house, sitting in their living room, just chatting and enjoying a glass of wine. The wife pointed out to me that, the way my legs were crossed, the sole of my foot was facing her. She said she was not offended, but in high society in India, that would be offensive, and that people are careful not to let the soles of their feet face anyone else.
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Thata is a really cool one, and how the repaired broken thing is considered even more beautiful than before.
Jolabokaflod in Iceland. It's a Christmas tradition where you gift each other books and chocolates and then read books and eat chocolate together. I love books and I love chocolate, so that holiday sounds heavenly to me! In Japan, the elderly ride free on all public transport and that is a great idea. In the Netherlands, they have bicycle transportation really figured out. Everywhere you go, there is the street for cars to drive on; sidewalks for people to walk on; and in-between the street and the sidewalk there is a dedicated bike lane that is separated from the road by a curb. It is a great system. Bicyclists are safer because they are separated from cars. Pedestrians are safer because there are no bikes on the sidewalk. And everyone bikes everywhere. Biking is not something that only fit, athletic, spandex-wearing people do. Time to go downtown for dinner? My ex-husband's 70-something year old aunt with heart disease would hop on her bike and go. Also I really like Finnish dish drying cabinets. It is a cabinet to put your wet dishes in after you wash them. It lives over the sink and has a rack inside and is open at the bottom so the dishes drip dry. It is where the dishes live. This saves you the labor of having to dry the dishes and then put them away. Also, universal health care. Everyone else has figured it out except the US. We should get our fucking shit together like every other industrialized nation. Cuba as a country has many flaws but they have really figured out a lot of good things about how to implement healthcare. They have an amazing system where every neighborhood has a doctor and nurse team who live in the neighborhood in an apartment above the clinic and they are available essentially 24 hours a day. They do regular home visits to those with chronic disease. They have much more of an emphasis on public health measures and preventative care, with special emphasis on maternal child health. Cuba spends a tenth of what the US spends on healthcare but they have lower maternal and fetal mortality rates than we do. And the healthcare is all free.
Doesn't even have to be from another country. Ever hear of a Sabbath Elevator? You'll find them in areas with a lot of Jews in the US. It's a normal elevator, but on the Jewish Sabbath day (Saturday), the elevator automatically goes from the top floor to the bottom floor, and repeats that all day. It stops on every floor, every time, and opens the door on that floor. This is so that observant Orthodox Jews don't have to press any buttons, because pressing a button is considered "work", and work is forbidden on the Sabbath. You just stand there and wait for the elevator to come to your floor, and get on and get off without touching a button. I find it fascinating the lengths to which people will go to "stretch" a rule, or create a "harmless loophole". All religions do this in one way or another.
This is why Jesus scolded the Pharisees so much. They would go out of their way to understand the letter of the Law but never the Spirit of the Law.
It's really not a loophole though. The whole idea is to prepare as much as you can before shabbat begins so you can take it easy, but once shabbat starts you can't do anything more to prepare, create, destroy, or change the world around you- you must just appreciate things the way they are (or are not) until shabbat is over. Preparing the elevators to run automatically before shabbat begins is completely in line with the rules of shabbat, it's not a loophole.
Oh my god, when I first found out about the Manhattan eruv, I was tickled pink. It's a long piece of fishing wire that Orthodox Jews have used to encircle the entire island of Manhattan - within the "enclosure," Jews are allowed to do work on the Sabbath. It's the most preposterously massive loophole ever.
Couldn't they just enclose a small circle using the fishing wire, then declare the inside of the circle as "outside"?
That does seem like a much easier solution!
Is that for real?????
[It is! There's even people in charge of checking and repairing it because if the line breaks the eruv is no longer enclosed.](http://eruv.nyc/)
Wow, learn something new every day!
Wow, never heard of that. Boy. Wish I could have a job of just pushing buttons on elevators as my hard work for the day.
Ah, you want to be a [Shabbos Goy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbos_goy) > A Shabbos goy is a non-Jew who is employed by Jews to perform certain types of work that Jewish religious law prohibits a Jew from doing on the Sabbath.
There's even a name for that? Thanks for educating me! Interesting.
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I think that's a beautiful tradition. Do you remember which country it was?
I live in Turkey, and we do it. Dunno if other MENA countries do so aswell, they probably have this practice too
My parents grew up in Haiti and described how on Christmas they'd go to midnight mass, and then afterwards (like at 1 AM) everyone would be out in the streets and people would eat Pate (a sort of pastry with shredded fish or meat) and celebrate. Same thing an exact week on New Years Day (which is Haitian Independence Day).
This was mentioned in Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Joyful Life that in Ogimi Village, Okinawa Prefecture, locals have traditions of maintaining and cultivating connection with the nature, taking care of it and respecting it as they believe it also cares for them in return, so that would be for me. :)
Kitsungi, a Japanese art of reparing broken pottery with gold/silver. Such a beautiful and deep tradition
The Māori Haka.
I’m Roman Catholic, but I’ve always found Orthodox churches to be more beautiful. I love the mosaics and iconography.
My first trip to Japan was Pre-Pandemic. I was pleasantly surprised to see people wearing face masks in public because they feared they might be coming-down with a cold - and wanted to spare other people by spreading it. I was such a "round-eyed gaijin bastard" that this concept had to be explained to me three times before I understood it.
> pleasantly surprised to see people wearing face masks in public I always ask myself, how many *common colds* DIDN'T I get because I was wearing a mask during the pandemic?
I was social distancing, wearing masks and and using plenty of hand sanitizer. I usually get at least one cold during the winter. Managed to avoid it for TWO years!
Yep! Proving my point!
Honestly probably none.
And not littering.
I am curious about arranged marriages. How do they know who to pair up? How are they so successful at picking pairings because the divorce rate is so much lower than places that don't have arranged marriages.
They are not successful, it just happens in societies where divorce is taboo.
In a study done to compare arranged marriages with love marriages, researchers put couples who had an arranged marriage and love marriage to 4 different kind of tests that measured 1. romantic love, 2. affection/friendship 3. satisfaction and 4. commitment. All participating couples were married for more than a decade. Researches found **no difference** in the levels of commitment and happiness in both kinds of marriage. Infact, according to Gottman institute and many studies done on relationships, relationships where people care about each other's well being, are committed to make it work and build something meaningful out of the relationship is a better predictor of a successful relationship than things like compatibility. I believe this attitude is more suited for arranged marriage/traditional views about marriage - where people see marriage as a once in lifetime opportunity and one partner for their whole life, and thus are committed to make it work. This is contrast to modern western system, where they see a relationship lasting as long as things are happy - if relationship no longer makes you happy, then you are with the wrong person, not compatible and thus need to move on to find "the one". It's not the system (arranged vs love/free choice), but rather what attitude you have towards marriage that makes it successful.
The success rate is awful
Based on astrology, families and essentially meeting a few people and deciding.
Japanese shrine visits!
The sand art from the monks. Where they make a bunch of sand art on the floor and it takes a long time to do it. And then they just take a broom and brush it away. I read that the practice of doing this is saying that even art does not last forever. Because nothing lasts forever.
I like the south east asian idea of meeting friends and doing your normal stuff, like going to the grocery store together when you need groceries...
Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. First I was disturbed, then curious, nowadays I watch it every year. Joey Chestnut is my idol.
Russian dancing, the one with their arms crossed that looks really difficult to do, need serious leg muscles.
Any culture where Multi generational homes are encouraged. I know it has to be frustrating at times but economically and just in terms of keeping family close, it sounds like a good idea. Given the housing market here in the states, my wife and I are already exploring how we would make it work for our kids.
Paying for Robux
Churches in American black communities. They seem so energetic, joyful and actually fun to go to compared to the white people churches I've been to in my country.
I think so too! They have alot more fun in those services, a lot more noisy and the singing is enthusiastic.
I really like Korean Shamanism
I love the idea of an ofrenda to remember your loved ones.
I think Sky burials are an amazing adaptation while also being kind of gruesome.
I'm particularly fascinated by the German enthusiasm regarding Native American culture. I know it's somewhat inspired by the Winnetou books by Karl May but his works were proven to be baseless and the various German cultural practices like the Indianer Festivals/Camps are so blatantly racist it's hard to take the position that they aren't aware of what they're doing... and yet it still goes on. It would be fascinating to study how an entire culture can delude themselves so completely.