Each country has its own belief system and rules, and there are some activities and believes that are openly accepted or openly frowned upon, if not punishable by law.
But some things? Some things are just straight-up weird.
Curious, Redditor Auelogic asked:
"What is considered a taboo in your country but absolutely fine in another country?"
Time And Place For Everything
"Sitting on a desk or table. In Maori culture, it's insulting to plonk your butt on a surface where food might be prepared."
- TooOldToBePunk
"A few times, I’ve heard my (non-Māori) dad say, 'Tables are for plates and glasses, not for people’s feet or a**es.' I like it, and completely agree with it."
- JDCA1993
Wait Until Tomorrow
"Mowing your lawn or other noisy activities on a Sunday."
"And yes, I'm in Germany."
- OctoMatter
"Same in Norway, protected by the 'law of holy day peace.' Sundays are meant for rest and they are regarded as a holy day, equal to all other bank holidays (typically all the red days in the Christian calendar)."
"On Sundays, the shops are closed, we rest, and we don't disturb the neighborly peace with loud activity noises. No lawnmowers, no hedge trimmers, no renovations, no nothing, only peace and children playing. I love it so much, it's my fav law in this country."
- ztibba
On The List
"In Alaska, you can be put in a phone registry to go and pick up a road kill moose off the side of the road. This is considered a super lucky phone call as even the worst road kill moose has hundreds of pounds of good meat."
"Everyone is normally stoked for you if you get this call also, and if during the day time, people will normally honk and cheer driving past you getting the dead moose."
"I never realized the weirdness of all of this till explaining the excitement of road kill moose to some friends in San Diego."
- Next_Emphasis_
"I was a police officer in a mid-Atlantic state and we had a deer list. Whenever we got dispatched to a dead/dying car-struck deer, we'd ask dispatch to call the next name on the deer list, and some guy would eventually show up in a pickup and toss the deer in the bed."
"We'd fill out a tag for him so he wouldn't get dinged for having a deer carcass out of season, and that'd be that."
- Reikko35715
Drinking Etiquette
"I just went to Germany for the first time (I’m from the US)."
"My colleague (from Germany) went to grab me a glass for my beer, and I said that I could just drink it from the bottle."
"You could almost hear a pin drop when about 10 Germans spun around to stare at me. One of them said, '......OP, that’s a WHEAT beer. It must be drank out of a glass!'"
- wafflekween
Male Friendships
"Men who are friends or family casually holding hands in public. It'll never happen here."
"I notice it's very common in the Middle East India, and Egypt. It's a safety thing, as I understand, and how to get across insane streets."
- Spiritual_Lemonade
"My Indian roommates used to do it."
"And let me tell you, they were homophobic as sh*t."
"But they never saw holding hands as an issue, which is nice in one way and f**ked up in another."
- DigNitty
Public Limitations
"Talking to a stranger on public transport."
- Moist_Haggis
"I would tell friends and family visiting me in NYC that if they needed directions in the subway, almost any New Yorker would gladly offer assistance and probably walk them to the platform stairs."
"Under all other circumstances, the best move was to avoid eye contact and read a book/magazine."
- snugglebandit
No Shoes In The Home
"Waltzing into someone's home while still wearing shoes."
- Frick-It_Ralf
"What if we go with a more traditional four-step?"
- -Satsujinn-
"Oh, well, that's okay then!"
- Frick-It_Ralf
Related Studies And Work
"Giving someone a job in an area that they didn't specifically study for, like studying computer science engineering and working as a financial analyst..."
"In the UK, I had colleagues who studied arts and worked in finance. That'd never happen in Portugal."
- H**l_ryder
"In my experience working in marketing and business consulting, the hires who'd done undergraduate degrees in traditional, unrelated subjects, very often outperformed those who's done marketing and business degrees."
"Some of the best people I've worked with at various different jobs had studied a wide range of subjects, although probably most often humanities or social sciences, eg English, modern languages, psychology, law, history, economics, philosophy."
"Being able to think critically and write persuasively are the essential skills, domain knowledge you can learn on the job, the reverse is much harder, and was much more common with those who'd done more vocational degrees."
"Moreover, course material on marketing and business undergrad degrees rarely translated into a meaningful advantage, sometimes the reverse, as this knowledge often needed to be unlearned."
- doyathinkasaurus
Crying Over Broken Spaghetti
"Breaking spaghetti."
- AdElectrical8222
"Yeah, I used to work with a lot of Italian students and this was one of the things they laughed at foreigners for doing. I say 'laughed at,' but they actually got quite angry."
"I also read an article a long while back about exactly why you should never break spaghetti. It wasn't joking, and it was surprisingly convincing! Although I can't remember where I read it."
- DiskPidge
"It's a joke some Italians lean into and it's taken very seriously by others."
"For Italians, the food their mother/grandmother made for them is the purest expression of love and care they will ever experience. Breaking pasta when so many nonnas out there worked hard to make their handmade pasta long is a sign of deep disrespect for the love and care that goes into their food."
- Dovaldo83
Birthday Time
"Celebrating your birthday before it's actually your birthday."
- halbesbrot
"If your birthday is on Sunday, you can't throw a party on Saturday?"
- Fernandexx
"Same taboo in my country. You either have the party on the day-of or a bit later (max one week). Having it before is a big no-no."
- efkey189
The Simple Things In Life
"Not liking fries or chocolate. Also, drinking light beer."
- Cartographerhot2285
"Serving your beer in the wrong kind of glass."
- ExpatriadaUE
"Not liking chocolate should be a crime."
- annatariel_
Physical Punishment
"Any kind of physical punishment for children. Maybe not exactly a taboo, rather downright illegal, but it’s shocking how normalized using physical punishment is in so many parts of the world."
- digl3tt
"Yes!!! And how people talk about it like, 'Oh, yeah, if I had done that as a kid I would've been whooped,' is quite shocking to me, growing up in a society where none of my peers (afaik) were slapped/spanked as kids."
"The research on the topic is pretty clear. Can't believe it's still so common around the world."
- moj_golube
"Should be illegal, in my opinion. No reason to physically harm someone. If even touching another adult without their consent is assault then why is it ok to beat your kids? Blows my mind."
- Royalchariot
Sharing With The Public
"Foraging or even walking through private land ('safe passage')."
"In many countries foraging on private property is quite acceptable if you are only taking small amounts, as well as safe passage (hiking through private property but not staying there)."
"But in the USA, even WALKING onto someone’s personal property without express permission can get you shot. And taking something?? Oh my f**king god, you have a death wish."
"Foraging isn’t permitted on most public lands either. 'Take nothing, leave nothing,' is the rule."
"Every European person I have told this to is stunned."
- Remarkable-Escape267
Microwave, Meet Kettle
"Microwaving water."
- Funk5oulBrother
"This one always makes me chuckle when people get upset about it. Hot water is hot Water. It doesn't really matter how you get there."
- Melbuf
It's always interesting to see what one culture or country deems acceptable while another does not and both sides' reasons for feeling the way that they do.
From waffles and fries to property limits, there's no shortage of interesting boundaries here.
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