UNUSUAL TRADITIONS

Do you remember when the famous singer Michael Jackson showed his baby in a balcony and the baby slipped out of his hand and almost fell down?

There is a country with a horrible tradition that reminds me of this incident.

In the South of India, especially in Karnataka, a bizarre ritual called “Okali” is celebrated. A Hindu priest tosses babies from the rooftop of a temple which is 15 meters high. The babies are between two months to two years old.

Below the temple their fathers and other devotees are waiting holding a blanket or a sheet to catch them.


This is a millenary tradition which is celebrated annually, because Indian people believe that this will make babies grow up stronger and will have good luck, health and prosperity in the future.


Although it's one of the most controversial traditions in the world, it is defended by devotees and priests who believe that this ritual is not a risk for the babies. Fortunately no accident has happened yet.

I disagree with this ritual because I think it's very dangerous for the little babies. Maybe for them it is an important ritual but for the rest of the world it's an unpleasant and dangerous custom.

This tradition dates from 1620 and takes places in a small Spanish village called Castillo de Murcia, near Burgos, and it is celebrated the fourth day after Corpus Christi feast.
A man, representing the devil, El Colacho, jumps over one-year-old babies to take away the evil from the babies.
According to the tradition, parents put their babies on a mattress at the central square of the village, then, a man dressed in a cheerful yellow costume springs over their heads carrying a whip and oversize castanets. It said that when “the devil” jumps over the babies, original sin sticks to him rather than them.
The event recalls the fight between good and evil.
Over centuries there have never been reports of injuries, but the festival is considered to be one of the riskiest in the world.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, four thousand kilometres far from the Chile coast is located the magic and spectacular Pascua Island.
The ancient population of this place are the Rapa Nui. They have a cultural festival born in 1968,called the Tapati Rapa Nui. This party revives the millenary history of this land from the 29th of January to the 13th of February.
It consists in a competition between two teams, who represent the old castes of the island, led by two women, who will be the queens of the festival. The members of the groups have to demonstrate how good they are at different skills as: singing, dancing, triathlon and body painting.
The team that gets the higher score will crown his queen and finally it is customary to close this festivity with a parade as well as a great feast for all the local people and tourists.

One of the things every human society has in common is marriage. It doesn't matter how backwards you move, finally you'll find something resembling a wedding, like for example:
In Fiji, men are expected to ask their father in law for his daughter’s hand in marriage,and also,they are expected to bring him a whale tooth. But,the only place in the world to get a whale tooth is in the mouth of the largest mammal, which spends most of his time underwater.
I don't know if that's true love ,but this strange wedding tradition just surprised me a lot.

Every 25th November (Saint Catherine´s Day), in many places of France, following an ancient tradition, women wear all day a strange green (the colour of hope) and yellow (the colour of happiness) hat, but only if they are twenty- five or more than twenty- five years old and if they aren’t married.
Many years ago, wearing the hat meant that they wanted to find true love, in contrast, nowadays I think they wear it just for fun, and not because they want to catch a husband.

“Covada” is a term from French that means “to incubate”, as birds do with their eggs.
When the woman is in the middle of the birth, her husband lies near her and he simulates birth pains and he cries at the same time as his wife. After the childbirth, the mother washes her baby while her husband stays in bed where he receives presents and attention from his relatives and friends.
There are documents talking about this tradition since the third century before present. It is practised in South America and New Guinea, and in the past was present between Asturians, Cantabrians, Basques, Maragatos, the natives of Ibiza and Corsicans. Nowadays there are remains of this costume in some places of Europe.
It is said that it’s a tradition in matriarchal cultures used by men to show their rights as father of the new son and also, to take part in the process of pregnancy and birth where he hasn’t a natural role. For others, it’s a way to cheat on death: mother and father change their roles to get out of the influence of the evil spirits.

It is a traditional holiday celebrated on 2 February. It is part of folklore of EE. UU and Canada, but especially in Pennsylvania where people get together to look at Phill, the marmot.

According to folklore if the weather is cloudy when a groundhog goes out of its burrow, the spring will be early, but if it is sunny, the groundhog can see its shadow and quickly go back into its burrow and the winter will continue for six weeks more.

This custom is very important for the farmers because the weather is important for the crops, and in the past ,we need to remember there wasn’t a weather forecast.


Nowadays, in Pennsylvania, Groundhog Day is a social event in which food is served and activities for entertainment are made.

In Thailand , more specifically in a tribe of Kayan, women are well known for wearing neck rings placed around the neck, appearing to lengthen it. The women are called "giraffe women" by tourists who come specifically to see them.
Girls start to wear rings when they are about five years old. Over the years the ring is replaced by a longer one and more turns are added.
The weight of the ring pushes the collar bone down and compresses their rib cage. The neck itself is not lengthened; the appearance of a stretched neck is created by the deformation of the clavicle.
Men think women are beautiful, and women think that these rings protect them from the dangers and diseases of the mountain.

The procession of the coffins is celebrated every year, on 29 July in Santa Marta de Ribarteme, a village located in the province of Pontevedra.
This unusual tradition exists since 17th century. It establishes that devotees, who suffer a disease and get over it, offer themselves to Saint Marta. They must go in procession inside the coffins, as if they were dead. They are carried by relatives who give thanks for carrying their beloved alive instead of dead.
They go in procession from the church to the cemetery and return to the starting point.
When it finishes, people continue with a popular party, eating and drinking in order to celebrate the victory of life over death.

It is a very famous tradition in Finland and it has a World Cup where lots of throwers compete. Throwers from a lot of countries like Russia, Finland, Sweden and Estonia go to this competition.
This custom comes from the argument of a couple, in which the woman threw her husband’s boot after throwing him away from home. In 1992 the first World Cup of this curious sport was held. After that, it has been held in Sweden, Germany, Estonia and Russia.
The game consists on throwing a boot as far as you can and you can do it the way you want (for example with a previous run or after a spin, etc.). All the players in the team must throw the boot and the referee must take note of the furthest distance that the members of the group get (one in a team) and this will be the final mark of all the team.
A very interesting thing is that a sixty-year millionare woman got very excited with this sport and she and her husband started to make boots for it. Finally the International Federation approved the new boots as the official ones for the competition

Polterabend is a German wedding custom which is celebrated the day or the week before the wedding. In this celebration, family and friends of the couple break cups, pots, plates or any porcelain objects but mirrors shouldn´t be broken because it brings bad lucky.
Then, the couple must clean the mess. This symbolizes the importance to work together and get over the adversities. The belief is that if they celebrate this tradition, the marriage will be lucky.
The word Polterabend comes from a German verb (Poltern) that means “make a lot of noise” and the word Abend that means “evening”. At the end, people dance, eat and drink all together.

This festival is held since 1998 every summer in South Korea, in a town 200 kms from Seoul, and it lasts two weeks. Boryeong is a town as big as Avilés in population but the number of visitors of the festival has increased over the years and in 2015 there were around 3 million people, both foreign and national visitors.
Thousand of kilos of mud are used to create mud pools, mud slides, a mud prison and mud wrestling pits. There are also other attractions like a mud skii competition or a mud king contest; even the mud is colored to be used as body painting. The point is that everybody finish up the day dirty and delighted.
The funny thing is this celebration was started as a marketing campaign by a cosmetic company because it seems that the mud has many health benefits.
Despite these beneficial effects, in 2008 the festival had a lot of issues when a group of children developed skin rashes in contact with the mud.
Anyway, the Boryeong Mud Festival is today one of South Korea’s biggest festival and the filthiest of all.

The Cheese Rolling is a competitive race in Cooper´s Hill, a small village in the north of London, and one of the oldest unusual traditions in Great Britain.
Every last Monday of May, a group of brave runners get together in Cooper´s Hill with a strong motivation: Beating their opponents and winning the competition
At 12 o´clock on the dot, a huge cheese is launched from the top pf the hill. Suddenly, everybody starts to run after the delicious trophy, and the person who first takes it, wins the competition.
This race used to be a dangerous tradition, because during the fall, they were a lot of broken bones; but nowadays, they are many security measures, and the race is a great deal safer than in the past.