SJ Desk
iversity is the soul of a society as it provides a pool of ideas, which helps humanity to evolve and nurture over time. A diverse society is more innovative with a quality bench strength that boosts the development of mankind. We bring you a list of few uncanny customs from the various cultures of the world.
Polterabend wedding ritual (Germany)
Prior to their wedding, the betrothed couple invite their family, relatives and near ones for a sort of ice breaking, unpretentious meeting. After having a vibrant time together, the guests are adjured to break all kinds of stuff with glass object as an exception. Once the house is a complete mess, the couples without any outside help start to clean the clutter and farrago the broken stuff. It is said that this tradition is carried on to cement the relationship of the couples, understand each other in a better way and to strengthen their coordination. In this case, party hard but WORK HARDER.
Finger chopping of the Dani Tribe (Indonesia)
Situated in New Guinea, Dani tribe practices one of the goriest customs of the modern world. When a family member dies in a household of this tribe, as if the emotional stress and anguish are not enough, they are subjected to diabolical physical sufferings. Mostly it’s the woman of the family that participates in this macabre ceremony but sometimes the old male member of the family can perform this ordinance too. In some rare cases, the people have opted to slash off their ear instead of fingers. Once the fingers are chopped off, they are burnt and their ashes are kept at the houses. This ritual of finger amputation is carried out as they think that doing so would fend off spirits and negative energy.
Aiming at an object using lips (Nicaragua)
A Central American country Nicaragua has a strange way when it comes to pointing at something. While mostly across the world, it is very common to use fingers as a form of gesticulation, in this place, people signal at places and things using their lips. People make duck faces and pucker to twist their lips to show ways and point at something. After all, lips don’t lie.
The custom of Troja people, Ma’nene (Indonesia)
The dinister of dead ones practiced by the Troja people is thought by many as one of the most anomalous cultures of the world. They dig out the corpse of the people, in order to clean the body along with the coffin and dress the dead ones up. This festival is called Ma’nene. A procession is taken out in the village with the dead body by their close ones and if someone has died at a far away place from the village, they might be taken to that spot and then returned back to their respective coffins.
Hurling babies (Solapur, India)
This one is not for the faint-hearted. In Solapur, a city in the state of Maharastra (India) you can witness one of the most appalling tradition and customs. People climb the shrine irrespective of the religion they practice and throw their infant baby from the top, subjecting them to a 30 feet fall below, where people are standing with a stretched sheet of cloth to catch the falling newborn. This tradition started more than 500 years back. People believe that by performing this ritual, the newborn will have a long life and a prosperous life ahead.
Spitting on the bride
In Massai, Kenya, the bride’s father spits on her daughter's upper body on the day of her wedding and when she leaves with her husband, she is not supposed to look back. The legend has it that doing so may transform her into a statue. Same goes in Greek marriage were to keep the evil eye at bay, the guests spit on the bride. Even though in today’s era, the spitting is quite often not done literally and people just make a sound of spitting. The guests even carry a blue colour as it is thought that blue colour gives immunity against evil. Odd numbers are considered auspicious as well. The spitting is done in odd numbers and so are the numbers of guests that attend the wedding.
Abduction of the bride, Romania
If you have attended Indian weddings, you must have witnessed the friends and cousins of bride stealing the shoes of the groom and demand gifts and money before returning it. But in Romania, there is a much bigger thing at stake than shoes for the groom at the wedding. The friends of the couple usually kidnap the bride and call the groom on his phone to inform him about the venue and negotiate the price of ransom. Usually, the kidnappers ask for a bottle of champagne or some petty things. The bride dances, click snaps and enjoys with the friends during the time that the groom takes to reach her.
Yanomami Tribe, Endocannibalism, Amazon rain forest
Yanomami tribe follows an uncanny ceremony after the death of their deceased tribe member. Once someone dies, they keep their body for around a month and a half to let the insects and nature feast upon the body. After which they collect the bones and burn it. The ashes of the bones are mixed with Banana soup which is consumed by the tribe members. This strange custom is performed because it is said that the dead person will be guided towards heaven by this process.