9 Shocking Cultures Still Practiced Around The World

Every culture has their way of marking the significant life events like birth, death, and marriage. However, despite their celebratory nature, some customs are hard to digest. In fact, a few of these rituals come as a shock to outsiders. Not only these customs are bizarre, but some of them are also painful.

From tomato fight to throwing the newly born from a height of 50 ft, here is a list of some of the shocking customs around the world:-

#1. La Tomatina

The annual tomato festival of Spain, which includes intense tomato fights. The festival is held in the town of Buñol, Spain, on the last Wednesday of August. Tomato fight on such a grand scale comes in as a strange culture to digest for the outsiders.

(Image Courtesy: Tess)

#2. Carrying Wife Over Coal

The weird Chinese custom requires the man to carry his wife and walk over burning coal before entering the home. Bizarrely, this custom is a way to ensure that the woman has a smooth labor. Some people also follow this custom to curb the likelihood of natural calamities.

(Image Courtesy: YouTube)

#3. Living With The Dead

The Indonesian people have quite strange customs to deal with the dead. They tend to preserve the corpses in their homes and even go on to dress the corpses up and carry out parades. The ceremony is done in order to get the dead to their home village in case someone died outside the boundary of their village.

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#4. Blackening The Bride

This Scottish tradition is fun and bizarre at the same time. The friends of the bride throw things like eggs, soot, and paint at her before her wedding and the bride is walked around in the vicinity. The intent behind this custom is to alert the bride of all the troubles she was going to face later after marriage.

(Image Courtesy: Ivy Ellen)

#5. Bear Worship

The Ainu people of Japan and Russia follow the weird tradition of worshipping bears. However, the custom gets even more bizarre when it requires the people to slay a mother bear and later strangulate her cubs. This custom has religious connotations and is seen as a way to express devotion.

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#6. Eskimo Funerary Ritual

Unlike the conventional cremation or burying, Eskimos have a bizarre ritual for the dead. They follow the strange custom of setting the old or the dead adrift on a floating iceberg. Being ardent believers of an afterlife, Eskimos find this custom as a way of ensuring that the elderly are not a burden upon the family.

(Image Courtesy: Alison Wright)

#7. Baby Throwing

This weird custom, practices in the city of Karnataka in India includes throwing the newly born from a height of 50 ft and catching them by spreading a cloth. The ritual takes place in the first week of December, and hundreds of infants are thrown off Sri Santeswar temple.

(Image Courtesy: TinyStep)

#8. Neck Rings

A traditional custom among the tribes of Africa and Thailand, girls, are made to wear long brass rings around their neck to get an elongated neck. This custom is usually practiced in order to enhance the beauty of women as long neck is seen as a symbol of beauty among these tribes.

(Image Courtesy: Hand Luggage)

#9. Bathroom Ban

The strange Indonesian custom requires the bride and groom to abstain from using the bathroom for three days and nights after the marriage. It is believed that the couple who does not follow the ritual will undergo turbulences in marriage. The newlyweds are given quite less quantity of food and beverages to facilitate the practice of the ritual.

(Image Courtesy: Trip To The World)

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