Top 12 Strangest Customs Worldwide You Might Want to Know

1. Self-flagellation until bleeding

Self-flagellation until bleeding is a significant ritual of Shiite Muslims during the month of Muharram. During this occasion, Shiite Muslims, in reverence, use whips or other formidable weapons to inflict self-torture until bleeding. They do so to express respect for Imam Hussein - the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad in Islam, who was killed by the forces of King Yazid.

Participants often strike their chests or hit themselves with chains adorned with knife blades, engaging in self-mortification to commemorate the sufferings of their saint. In many countries with a significant Shiite Muslim population, such as Iran, Bahrain, India, Lebanon, Iraq, and Pakistan, the Ashura ritual is observed on a grand scale and is even declared a national holiday in many places.

2. Amputation of Fingers

One of the most peculiar customs worldwide is the practice of amputating fingers among the Dani people in Indonesia. For them, the loss of a family member is an immense grief. To soothe the pain and bid farewell to the departed, members of this tribe carry out a ritual of finger amputation to express profound sorrow, love, and compassion towards the deceased. Notably, women in the family are tasked with cutting off the tips of the fingers.

Before the amputation, the fingers are tightly bound with rubber strings for approximately 30 minutes, numbing the tips to minimize pain. After the amputation, the severed finger tips are collected, dried, and then burned to ashes. These ashes are buried in a designated place. When someone in the tribe passes away, close relatives such as spouses will amputate their fingers and bury them alongside the deceased. Additionally, they apply mud and ashes to their faces as a gesture of profound sympathy.

Little known to many, in India, there exists a bizarre ritual - tossing infants from a height of over 15m onto a blanket below for good luck. This peculiar tradition is said to have been around for over 500 years and takes place in the village of Harangal in the state of Maharashtra, Western India. This peculiar ritual occurs annually in the first week of December, drawing the participation of hundreds of people.

Every year, one-year-old babies from the state of Karnataka in South India must partake in a horrifying ceremony. From the roof of a temple, priests hold, shake, and jostle frightened infants. Subsequently, they release them to the ground from a height of 9m. Local residents stand ready below, with a large blanket to catch the falling babies and return them to their mothers. Of course, the infants cannot escape the panic and cry out. According to Indian beliefs, this ritual is believed to promote the health of the babies and bring prosperity and good luck to the entire family. After being dropped onto the blanket held by a group of about 14 people, the child is passed through the crowd and into the hands of the mother. It is believed that this ritual will bring luck and health to the babies.

The Tidong community in Indonesia has a peculiar custom in weddings. The groom is not allowed to see the bride's face when he sings the songs she likes. However, the most peculiar thing in Tidong weddings is that the newlyweds are forbidden to bathe for three days and three nights after the wedding. The locals believe that if the ritual is not followed correctly, bad things will happen such as marriage breaking, unfaithfulness of spouses, short-lived children, etc. After the third day, they are allowed to bathe and return to normal life. Therefore, every couple must adhere to this somewhat bizarre and challenging custom for the sake of their children's health.

Additionally, the Tidong people have many romantic wedding customs such as: the groom is not allowed to see his bride's face unless he sings a few love songs for her. Or the couple will be separated by a veil, and only when the orchestra starts playing are they allowed to look at each other on the wedding stage.

Dancing with the Dead is a peculiar tradition of the Malagasy people in Madagascar. The locals have a unique way of commemorating the departed and strengthening family bonds, known as Famadihana or 'turning of the bones.' This strange ritual occurs approximately every 7 years around the family tomb. During the ceremony, the remains of the deceased are carefully unearthed and wrapped in a new silk cloth. Family members of all ages then embrace these bundles and joyfully dance together. The elders take this opportunity to share the stories and wisdom of those who came before them.

The Famadihana ceremony is a day to express love and respect for departed loved ones. This ritual bears similarities to the exhumation customs in Vietnam. It is a time for family reunion and a demonstration of close-knit relationships. The Malagasy people believe that humans are not born from dust but from the ashes of their ancestors. Therefore, as long as the remains are not completely decomposed, the deceased can still communicate with the living. Thus, until the ancestors depart permanently, they continue to express love and reverence on the Famadihana festival.

One of the customs that sends shivers down the spine is the practice of cremation and consuming the ashes of the deceased among the Yanomami tribe. They inhabit the tropical rainforests in the northern mountains of Brazil and southern Venezuela. For the people of this tribe, the funeral ritual for the departed is crucial as it aims to ensure peace for the souls of the deceased.

The Yanomami funeral ritual consists of three main ceremonies held right at the site of the funeral pyre. First, they perform a ceremony expressing extreme anger towards the departed. Next is a ceremony expressing grief and sorrow. Lastly, the cremation ceremony. They believe that burial merely decomposes the flesh but does not release the spirit. Therefore, when bidding farewell to their loved ones, they do not bury them. Instead, they cremate and take the ashes of the deceased mixed into their food, particularly in a common dish, banana stew - a prevalent dish during memorial days. By doing so, they believe the soul of the departed will live within them forever.

Tooth filing is considered one of the major religious rituals of Hinduism. This ritual holds great significance in their culture, marking the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is a ceremony both males and females must complete before marriage, sometimes performed during the wedding ceremony itself.

In Bali, teeth are seen as symbols of desire, anger, jealousy, and other negative emotions. Hence, teeth are often filed smooth on significant occasions, signifying the transition of a woman from adolescence to adulthood.

The Tomato Throwing Festival is considered one of the major festivals in Europe. It is held annually on the last Wednesday of August at Plaza del Pueblo and the village of Bunol, Valencia (Spain). The origin of La Tomatina has various theories, with most agreeing that it started in 1945 due to a street brawl in Plaza del Pueblo town square.

La Tomatina festival has been organized since World War II. However, since 2013, tickets have been sold to control the number of participants (around 20,000 people). Participants must follow some regulations, such as squashing tomatoes before throwing, not throwing bottles or hard objects, staying away from tomato trucks, etc. Tourists are also advised to wear old clothes to avoid damage after the festival. People of all ages, from the elderly to the young, those who want to immerse in the event, use a lot of tomatoes sold nearby as weapons. To prevent riots and hold those responsible for compensating for any damages incurred, the police had to intervene.

For the Satere-Mawe tribe in the Amazon, any boy aspiring to become a true man must undergo the initiation ritual of bullet ant glove. As a young boy reaches puberty, he ventures into the forest with other tribe boys to search for and collect bullet ants - one of the most painful stinging ants in the world. The venom from these ants is compared to a gunshot when it pierces the flesh.

Upon initiation, the boys go into the forest to find Paraponera Clavata ants. They start a fire around the ant nest, catch the ants, and carefully place them on a glove woven from leaves. The ants are drugged and put into a specially crafted leaf glove. As the ants enter a state of semi-consciousness, they become aggressive and ready to attack anything in their path. At this point, the boys must insert their hands into the leaf glove and endure the sensation for about 10 minutes, feeling like their hands are on fire. However, the Satere-Mawe boys have to endure this pain 20 times to be recognized as grown men.

This tradition originated from China and still exists in the Tujia community. About a month before the wedding, the bride, whether sad or not, must show sadness and cry a lot every day. Tujia girls use crying to 'celebrate' the significant day of their lives. The bride will start weeping a month before the wedding, with some even crying for several months prior. While there are no specific rules about the number of days to cry, no bride is allowed to cry less than 3 days, and the daily crying time should not be less than 60 minutes.

Even the mother and relatives of the bride participate in this ritual. Specifically, for the first 10 days, the bride's mother will cry with her daughter; for the next 10 days, the bride's grandmother will also cry with her granddaughter, and for the last 10 days, all women in the bride's family will wail together. The significance of this ritual is to demonstrate the sorrow of leaving the bride's family. Additionally, the involvement of relatives in the intense crying is a way to bless the bride as she is about to enter married life.

Thaipusam Body Piercing Festival is a celebration among Hindus. This annual festival commemorates the victory of the god Murugan over demonic forces. The name Thaipusam is derived from the names of two months, Thai and Pusam (January and February). This is also the time when Hindu followers adhere to strict fasting principles. The full moon day is considered a day of gratitude and repentance, commemorating the day the Hindu goddess Pavarthi gave her son Muruga, the god of war, an invincible spear to defeat the demon Soorapadam.

Hindus believe that they will cleanse all sins by performing strict religious rituals and prayers during the Thaipusam festival. It's common to see devotees walking barefoot, carrying heavy jewelry hanging from hooks called kavadi. Some pierce their tongues, cheeks, and backs. Murugan used his mother's spear, Mariamman or the goddess Parvati, to achieve victory. Therefore, this spear has become a symbol of the festival, and participants use multiple sharp skewers to pierce their bodies, including the tongue. Some countries where this ritual is present include India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Over time, these rituals have become more impressive, increasingly eerie, and more colorful with large skewers pierced through the chests and faces of the devotees.

This is a peculiar tradition that might surprise many. Unlike the common practice of wearing a ring on the ring finger, Hindu brides wear their wedding ring on their toes.

This ring, typically made of silver, is worn on the bride's left foot, on the thumb toe. In India, these toe rings serve as a substitute for finger rings. The wedding ceremony includes the moment when the groom puts the ring on the bride's toe. Interestingly, grooms do not have to wear one. Fascinating, isn't it?