Traditions and Customs of your country.

[Salka]

I posted this over at AG, but I thought that I'd post it here too because a lot of Mojo'ers mix their mojo here, and--- oh man, that was lame.

Anyway.

Yesterday I spoke to an american who'd never heard of the Irish Celebration day, Buidhean dár sluagh, which basically means 'Young and Old Alike'. It's a celebration of life in general, and a person recieves it at the age of one year, and again at the age of sixty. It's like an extra special birthday. It means that the old and young of Ireland are alike despite their age and things like this. It's celebrated with an extra big party.

It works like this;

If you're one year old you're given a pint of guinness, and if you're sixty you're given a pint of milk. It's kinda like saying, the young will one day be old, but the old are always young at heart.

Although at the moment they're trying to make Guinness develop a 'Guinness Light' for babies, because often the kid gets a little drunk and might try to drink other peoples drinks. Once, recently, a baby had to go in to get it's stomach pumped. But it was a very small baby, it didn't look like a one year old, and it was practically smaller than the pint glass.

So,

It's such a normality for Ireland, I can't believe they hadn't heard of it. Which makes me think... what are the customs and traditions of your country? Tell them here.

[MrHoatzin]

In Serbia we kill all our virtuous leaders every now and again. When by accident we kill an Archduke who deserves to die we start a World War....

[Salka]

That reminds me... Mommy said S&M started the World War. Which makes me think... how does my Mommy know what S&M is, anyway? That's gross.

[tabacco]

  Yufster said:

That reminds me... Mommy said S&M started the World War. Which makes me think... how does my Mommy know what S&M is, anyway? That's gross.

Your mom plays Sam and Max?

Um... here in Santa Cruz it's traditional to gather on weekdays ending in 'y' to protest an arbitrarily chosen corporation for, as near as I can tell, being a corporation. But then again, this city is full of the kind of nutjobs who enjoy that sort of thing.

[Erwin_Br]

It's a Dutch tradition to complain about everything. Not that I'm complaining about it.

--Erwin

[Jayel]

As far as I can tell, Canada has no tradition

[Erwin_Br]

  Jayel said:

As far as I can tell, Canada has no tradition

[insert lame polar bear joke here]

--Erwin

[Salka]

No tradition is better than cranky, drunk babies. Or babies with a hangover. And you ever tried feeding a baby Alka Seltzer?

[Skinkie]

  Jayel said:

As far as I can tell, Canada has no tradition

You mean "As far as I can tell, Canada has no tradition, eh."

[Marek]

Here's a nice cultural difference for ya. In Holland, it's called midgetgolf.

Sorry.

[Erwin_Br]

  Yufster said:

It's such a normality for Ireland, I can't believe they hadn't heard of it. Which makes me think... what are the customs and traditions of your country? Tell them here.

There's an Irish pub at the corner of the street, which I like to visit every now and then. Never heard of this Irish tradition, but I'll make sure to look for babies there in the future.

--Erwin

[Emma]

Some North-East Scotland traditions:

Blackening - Happens to a bride and groom usually a few days before they get married. Their friends essentially kidnap them, cover them in flour, eggs, treacle, mud, feathers - i.e. anything messy, then parade them around town in a buggy/trolly/car or just tie them to something and leave 'em there.

First Footing - Done at New Year. A first footer is typically a tall dark man (to bring luck) bringing a present for the owners of the house he visits.

Robbie Burns Night - Yay! Haggis, neeps and tatties for dinner!

In any sports, etc. we always support the team who are playing against England.

Hmm. We take the piss out of the English a lot too.

Oh, we also have a range of lovely foodstuffs that you can't get anywhere else in the UK, which annoys me because I'm studying in Wales. I'm missing butteries, white puddings, red puddings, tablet and oatmeal stuffing.

[Chris]

  Marek said:

Here's a nice cultural difference for ya. In Holland, it's called midgetgolf.

Sorry.

Argh, this again? Your country is still retarded. It's MINIATURE GOLF. MINIATURE GOLF!

[Salka]

Midgetgolf!? HAAAhahaha!!!

Speaking of small people, I just remembered something somewhat amusing. The drunk babies are not allowed drink milk for twenty four hours after their birthday, because the alcohol turns it sour in their stomachs. Many a mother has made their child very sick by trying to hide the Alka Seltzer in a bottle of milk. Because those cranky, hungover babies don't like Alka Seltzer. Those cranky, hungover babies don't like anything.

Except more alcohol! Instead of hiding the Alka Seltzer in milk, you should mix it with a small quantity of whiskey. Not only does the whiskey mask the taste of the cure, but babies like whiskey. Seriously. If you have a baby, try giving it whiskey. Or if you're scared and/or not Irish, let it taste it off the tip of your finger. Babies love whiskey. They're little alcoholics.

Which may be because in Ireland, we use Guinness to cure Colic in babies, and rum as a painkiller when they get cuts/bruises.

There's an episode of Father Ted where the nun is trying to find a home for an orphan and she lets Ted look after the baby orphan for a while, and Ted has to give her a birthday party and decides to put the Alka Seltzer in the guinness to kill two birds with one stone, and the baby starts throwing up everywhere, baby-style. And then Bishop Brennan comes to stay.

Anyway. Tell me more about this Hollish 'Midgetgolf' tradition!

[Erwin_Br]

There's not much else to say about Midgetgolf because it's just how we call it.

But there's another thing every (real) Dutchman has visited in his life: A Dutch midget city!

May I present to you: Madurodam:

--Erwin

[Marek]

We built it so the rest of our country seems bigger.

Okay, so here's an actual Dutch tradition that took place last night. It's called Luilak (Lazybones). On the Saturday before Whit Sunday (Pentecost), kids get up really early in the morning to make loud noises to wake people up. The official reason is to get people to go to the nightly Luilak market, but the unofficial reason is to just annoy people for no reason. The tradition gradually mutated over the years, so mild vandalism (using wax or soap to write on windows) and random fucking around are more important now.

Apparently things are not as fun for kids as it used to be, now that people disconnect their doorbells and put some kind of stuff on the windows that makes it easy to wash stuff off.

[Salka]

Like Halloween, then?

[Skinkie]

  Yufster said:

Like Halloween, then?

But without the cool costumes I bet.

[Wormsie]

This thread is making me feel ill.

Is that the Gay Pride flag in your avatar, Yufster? If so... why?

[Salka]

Gay pride? What are you talking about? It's a flag with a rainbow on it. I just wanted something happy in my avatar is all, and something colourful. Man, what, now you have to live in a Black and White world to stay heterosexual? Jeez.

I found it in google image search.

And you suck.

[ysbreker]

nothing wrong with gay pride, even if you're not gay

Anyway, luilak is a very local event type thing. We also have sint maarten , something you can compare with halloween, but instead of costumes you make your own lantern and go from foor to door singing st maarten songs for loads of candy

Oh and queensday is also sort of becoming a tradition

[Salka]

I'm all for gay pride. I'm proud for all my friends that are gay. I'm proud for gay people that manage to live in a world full of people that discriminate against them needlessly.

But just because it's a colourful rainbow, jeez, you guys...

[Erwin_Br]

  Yufster said:

But just because it's a colourful rainbow, jeez, you guys...

Too bad there's no pot of gold involved.

--Erwin

[MrHoatzin]

  Erwin_Br said:

Too bad there's no pot of gold involved.

--Erwin

Man, lay off the racial slurs already!

[Erwin_Br]

  Kingzjester said:

Man, lay off the racial slurs already!

Okay, okay... A pot of silver would be just as fine.

--Erwin