Each country, each nation has its own traditions, customs and beliefs. In ancient Russia, bread and salt were always left on the table, wrapped in a linen rag. It was believed that the family will have abundance and happiness.
May you live happily ever after
Another custom - with bread and salt, parents met the newlyweds after the wedding in the church. The newly minted husband and wife had to bite off a piece from different sides of the loaf without the help of their hands. Whoever bites off more will be the main one in the house.
This ancient tradition is found among many Slavic peoples, but the customs are not always so harmless, sometimes people are subjected to rather cruel or unusual procedures from the point of view of a modern person.
In India, they believe in reincarnation - the transmigration of souls, so there they can marry a girl off to a tree, even several candidates - a banana or ficus. This procedure is carried out with "mangalik" - the so-called girls born on a day with a certain position of Mars.
It is believed that the mangaliks' husband will surely die young. To prevent this from happening, she is first married off to a tree. After the wedding, the plant is destroyed, the unfortunate first "husband" dies, but the second will not face early death.
According to the rule, in an Indian family, the eldest of the sons must marry first. If for some reason he could not do this, he was married to a tree, which was also destroyed after the ceremony. And the younger one could marry without breaking traditions.
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In recent decades, obesity has emerged in many countries. Millions of people strive to put their figure in order, making many sacrifices.
Advice: if you have not managed to lose weight, and on the "nose" of the wedding, you have to go to Mauritania, where the thicker - the more beautiful. Therefore, girls are forced to eat a lot, giving them for fattening in special establishments where they are watched by educators.
Girls aged 8-10 had to eat up to two kilograms of high-calorie food, drink 100 glasses of camel milk! 8-12 months before the proposed wedding, the girl is sent for further weight gain in a special hut, where she lies almost motionless and consumes an incredible amount of food.
Celebrate birthday
Birthdays, like weddings, are also interesting and funny. It is believed that this day was first celebrated in Egypt. Not ordinary people and women, even noble ones, but male pharaohs and kings. Then the women got the opportunity to celebrate this day and the first, according to legend, was Cleopatra.
It is believed that on this day the Guardian angel helps to fulfill hopes, to fulfill desires, which can be made all day. Therefore, it is necessary to celebrate this day and arrange at least a small celebration.
In some countries of North Africa, birthday is celebrated only twice in a lifetime - at the moment of birth and when one turns 52 (the age of Magomed). If a person wants to celebrate again, he will have to live 104 years, not everyone succeeds.
In England, the Queen herself sends congratulations to people who turn 80, 90 and 100 years old.
In Germany, a single man, when he turns 30, takes a broom and starts cleaning in crowded streets. Friends accompanying the birthday boy, laughing and joking, throw up small rubbish to prolong the test and their pleasure. It continues until an unmarried girl passing by the action kisses the hero of the day, saving him from labor service. Then the whole company goes to have fun.
In Brazil, the Satere Mave tribe celebrates not a birthday, but a rite of growing up, and not with a kiss from a girl. In order for a boy to be recognized as an adult, he must hold his hand with feisty ants in a special mitt for 10 minutes, while trying not to scream or cry in pain.
Ants of this species have a very painful bite, terrible pain sensations do not pass a day even from one bite, but here there are hundreds of them! From shock, the death of a child often occurs.
To carry out the ritual, adult members of the tribe euthanize the ants in a known way and weave a mitten from plant fibers, placing the insects in such a way as to direct the stings inward. The boy is put on a mitten on his hand and the awakened insects begin to bite. The pain is hellish, from the poison the hand is temporarily paralyzed.
This rite is carried out until the elders recognize the boy as a man who has passed the test for stamina and endurance - qualities necessary for a true warrior.
On the last journey
In the province of China, the Bo people have already disappeared, but their burials remained - as if hanging in the air along the steep cliffs. The oldest are 2500 years old, the last 400. They were made from a piece of wood and installed on supports driven into the rocks. This was done in order to prevent the animals from destroying the burial place or people to plunder.
Modernity brings its own adjustments to customs. In Korea, the ancient traditions of Confucianism dominate, for which burial in the ground is mandatory. But in the country there is a shortage of territory, the government has long offered residents to cremate the dead. Radical measures were taken in 2008 - a law was issued according to which the graves can exist for 60 years, after which they should be removed. After that, 7 out of 10 bodies of Koreans are cremated.
The ash is exposed to high temperatures, it crystallizes, turning into shiny bead-like stones. They are painted in different colors at the request of relatives, they keep them in crystal bottles at home.
In China, there is a tradition that arose during the reign of the Han dynasty: people who did not have time to start a family were buried with the deceased of the opposite sex. A strange custom is called "minghun" - posthumous marriage. It is believed that in the afterlife, the dead will marry, create a family.
The parents of the dead girl are paid by the groom's parents $ 1000 or more, as in the case of ransom. Not everyone has that kind of money and, in order to provide their deceased relative with a couple, they desecrate fresh graves, commit murders, or try to ransom the body from the morgue.
From birth to death, people adhere to traditions, perform rituals. Some are pleasant or funny, others are creepy or painful. One has only to be surprised or sympathetic to those who have to go through them.