109 Fun Facts About World Cultures

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is traditionally celebrated by lighting what?

Diyas, or small oil lamps, are lit on the new-moon night to invite Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, into the home; in northern India the festival also marks Rama's return to Ayodhya.

Which bright orange flower is used to decorate altars and graves during Mexico's Day of the Dead?

Marigolds, known in Mexico as cempasúchil, are believed to guide spirits home with their colour and strong scent; they cover ofrendas, the home altars holding the favourite foods and drinks of the departed.

Mexico's Day of the Dead ends on 2 November, the Catholic feast known as what?

All Souls' Day follows All Saints' Day on 1 November; over the two days Mexican families adorn graves with candles and the favourite foods of dead relatives to coax them home for a reunion.

Holi, the Hindu festival of coloured powder and water, celebrates love and the arrival of which season?

Spring; the night before, bonfires are lit for Holika Dahan, the burning of the demoness Holika.

Thailand's Songkran new year festival, celebrated on 13 April, is famous for what?

Public water fights fill the streets for three days from 13 April; in temple and family rites, water is also poured over Buddha images and elders' hands, as an act of cleansing and blessing.

The first Oktoberfest, in 1810, was held to celebrate what?

A royal wedding: Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on 12 October 1810, and Munich's fairground is named the Theresienwiese after her.

Which Spanish town hosts La Tomatina, the world's biggest food fight?

Buñol, a town of about 9,000 near Valencia, traces the tomato fight to a brawl at a street parade in 1945; since 2013 entry has been ticketed and capped at 20,000.

The famous running of the bulls takes place in Pamplona during a festival honouring which saint?

Fermin, by tradition Pamplona's first bishop, is honoured from 6 to 14 July; the six bulls that run through the streets each morning are fought in the ring that same afternoon.

Chinese New Year celebrations run until which event on the 15th day of the year?

The Lantern Festival closes the celebrations under the year's first full moon; lanterns are hung with riddles, and whoever solves one wins a small gift.

When giving money in a Chinese red envelope, which number should be avoided in the amount?

Four sounds like the word for death in Chinese, so amounts such as 40, 400 or 444 are avoided too; the same fear leaves many East Asian buildings without a fourth floor.

Nowruz, the Persian New Year, falls on which astronomical event?

The spring equinox: Nowruz begins at the instant the sun crosses the celestial equator, around 21 March; its roots are Zoroastrian, and families set a haft-sin table of seven items beginning with the letter S.

Chuseok, an autumn harvest festival when families return to their ancestral hometowns, is a major holiday for which people?

Koreans mark Chuseok on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, tidying ancestral graves and sharing songpyeon, half-moon rice cakes steamed over pine needles for their scent.

Kwanzaa, first celebrated in 1966, takes its name from a phrase in which language?

Swahili: 'matunda ya kwanza' means 'first fruits', and founder Maulana Karenga added an extra 'a' to give the name seven letters, the number that also runs through the holiday's seven principles and seven candles.

France's national day on 14 July commemorates the storming of which building in 1789?

The Bastille, a fortress-prison already marked for demolition, held just seven inmates when a crowd stormed it on 14 July 1789: the attackers were after the arms and ammunition stored inside.

Every 5 November, Britons light bonfires and set off fireworks to mark the 1605 foiling of what?

The Gunpowder Plot; Guy Fawkes was caught guarding the explosives beneath the House of Lords, and Londoners lit bonfires that night to celebrate the king's survival.

Boxing Day, 26 December, coincides with which saint's feast?

Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, has his feast on 26 December; one theory traces the Boxing Day name to church alms boxes opened for the poor on that day.

Trick-or-treating grew out of 'guising', a house-to-house Halloween custom from which two countries?

Scotland and Ireland: guisers in costume went door to door reciting a verse or song in exchange for food or coins, and 19th-century Irish and Scottish emigrants took their Halloween customs to North America.

The hongi, the traditional Māori greeting, is performed how?

By pressing noses together, often with foreheads touching, to share the breath of life; in Māori tradition the god Tāne breathed life into the first woman the same way.

'Namaste' comes from Sanskrit words meaning what?

'I bow to you' is the literal sense of the Sanskrit namas, bowing, and te, to you; during the Covid pandemic the no-contact greeting was taken up around the world in place of handshakes.

In the Thai wai greeting, how do you show greater respect?

Hands higher, head lower: the thumbs rise from chin level for an equal to the brow for a monk, and the head dips further; the wai also serves as thank you and sorry.

In Japanese etiquette, what are the meishi that people offer with both hands?

Business cards, or meishi, are offered with both hands, studied for a moment and then laid carefully on the table or in a card holder, a small ritual meant to show respect.

Whose kimono is wrapped right over left, the reverse of the usual way?

A person who has died is dressed right over left for burial, so a living wearer who gets the wrap backwards is dressed like a corpse.

Which South Asian garment is one unstitched cloth draped from waist to shoulder?

Sari lengths vary: Maharashtra's nauvari runs to nine yards and is drawn between the legs and tucked in behind so the wearer can move freely.

The modern Scottish kilt is essentially the bottom half of which older Highland garment?

The great kilt, or belted plaid, was one long cloth, half pleated round the waist and half thrown over the shoulder as a cloak; in time the two halves became separate garments.

Kente cloth, woven in strips of silk and cotton, is officially recognised as a product of which country?

Ghana registered kente as a geographical indication in 2025, so only cloth woven in its designated communities, such as Bonwire in the Ashanti region, can be sold abroad as authentic kente.

The áo dài, a long split tunic worn over silk trousers, is the traditional dress of which country?

Vietnam's áo dài got its fitted modern shape in 1930s Hanoi, when the artist Cát Tường, known as Le Mur, restyled the older five-panel gown along French fashion lines.

The fez was banned in 1925 in which country, as part of a modernising 'Hat Revolution'?

Turkey: Atatürk's Hat Law of November 1925 outlawed the fez in favour of Western brimmed hats; ironically, Sultan Mahmud II had imposed the fez on Ottoman officials in 1829 to replace the turban.

Why is standing chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice taboo across East Asia?

It resembles incense offered to the dead; in Japan a bowl of rice with upright chopsticks is set on the funeral altar, and passing food from chopstick to chopstick is avoided for echoing a cremation rite.

Haggis, Scotland's national dish, is celebrated in a 1786 poem by whom?

Robert Burns wrote 'Address to a Haggis' in 1786, and it is recited at Burns suppers every 25 January, where the haggis is served with neeps, tatties and a dram.

Poutine, fries with cheese curds and gravy, emerged in the late 1950s in which Canadian province?

Quebec: in Warwick, Fernand Lachance said he first tossed cheese curds onto fries at a customer's request in 1957, warning it would make a 'maudite poutine', a damned mess; rival towns dispute the claim.

Vegemite, the dark Australian spread, is made from what?

Brewers' yeast extract was turned into the spread by the chemist Cyril Callister for Fred Walker's Melbourne food company; with no recipe to copy from Britain's Marmite, he worked the process out from scratch.

Which Spanish region is the home of flamenco?

Andalusia's gitano, or Romani, communities shaped flamenco; in 1922 the composer Manuel de Falla and the writer Federico García Lorca staged a contest at Granada's Alhambra to restore its 'deep song' to its old purity.

Tango was born in the 1880s in the port areas along which river?

The Río de la Plata separates Buenos Aires and Montevideo, where tango grew up in poor dockside districts; dancers from Buenos Aires took it to Europe, and by 1915 it was a craze in fashionable circles there.

Which Brazilian martial art is played in a circle called a roda, led by the berimbau?

Capoeira grew up among enslaved Africans in Brazil and is often said to have been disguised as a dance; it was listed as a crime in the 1890 penal code and legalised only in the 1930s.

Which country's national rugby team performs the 'Ka Mate' haka before its matches?

New Zealand's All Blacks perform Ka Mate, composed around 1820 by the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha after he hid from enemies in a kūmara pit; Samoa and Tonga answer with war dances of their own.

The didgeridoo requires which technique to keep its continuous drone going?

Circular breathing, drawing air in through the nose while pushing stored air out of the cheeks, keeps the drone unbroken; makers in northern Australia seek out eucalyptus trunks that are already hollow.

Sumo wrestlers throw what into the ring before a bout, as a Shinto purification ritual?

Salt is thought to have cleansing power, so wrestlers scatter it over a ring treated as sacred ground; sumo has been closely tied to Shinto since its earliest days.

Muay Thai's 'eight limbs' are fists, elbows, knees and what?

Shins, used to strike and to block, complete the eight points of contact with fists, elbows and knees; before the bell, fighters perform the wai khru ram muay, a dance saluting their teachers.

Which Scottish Highland games event has competitors flip a long tapered pole end over end?

The caber toss is judged on accuracy, not distance: the log must flip end over end and land pointing straight away from the thrower, the '12 o'clock' position.

England's Cooper's Hill event sends competitors chasing what down a steep slope?

A wheel of Double Gloucester cheese gets a head start down the 1:2 slope and is never actually caught: the first runner across the line at the bottom wins it.

The sport of wife-carrying was introduced in 1992 in which country?

Finland: the first wife-carrying championship was held in Sonkajärvi in 1992, inspired by tales of the 19th-century brigand Rosvo-Ronkainen; the winner receives the wife's weight in beer.

What do Spaniards eat twelve of, one per chime, at midnight on New Year's Eve?

Grapes: Spaniards swallow twelve 'uvas de la suerte', one per chime of the Puerta del Sol clock in Madrid; an oft-told story credits Alicante growers with pushing the custom in 1909 to sell a bumper crop.

Which Jewish ceremony marks a girl's religious adulthood, at 12 in Orthodox communities?

Bat mitzvah means 'daughter of the commandment'; the first in America was held in 1922, when Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan arranged one for his daughter Judith at his New York synagogue.

Henna body art applied to brides before weddings across South Asia and the Middle East is known as what?

Mehndi takes its name from a Sanskrit word for the henna plant; the paste is piped onto a bride's hands and feet, and lemon juice and sugar are often added to deepen the stain.

The blue-and-white glass 'nazar' amulet, sold from Istanbul to Athens, protects against what?

The evil eye is a curse cast by an envious glare, and the nazar is an eye that stares back; around the Aegean, where light eyes are rare, blue-eyed people were thought likeliest to cast it.

Which Japanese term names the aesthetic of finding beauty in imperfection and impermanence?

Wabi-sabi was championed by the 16th-century tea master Sen no Rikyū, who shrank the tea room to a rustic hut with a door so low that every guest, however grand, had to stoop to enter.

The southern African philosophy of ubuntu takes its name from a Bantu word meaning what?

'Humanity': ubuntu means humanness towards others in Zulu and Xhosa and is often glossed 'I am because we are'; Desmond Tutu invoked it when he chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Russia's matryoshka nesting dolls won a medal at the 1900 world's fair held in which city?

Paris hosted the 1900 Exposition Universelle, where the medal brought orders from abroad; the first set, carved in the 1890s by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, nested eight figures from a mother with a rooster down to a baby.

Acolman in Mexico claims to be the cradle of which object, once used to teach the deadly sins?

The piñata's seven points stood for the seven deadly sins and the sweets inside for temptation; friars at Acolman's convent are said to have been the first in Mexico to use it to teach the faith.

Yodeling is thought to have started in the Central Alps for what practical purpose?

Calling herds and villages: Alpine herders used the far-carrying leaps between chest and head voice to gather cattle and signal across valleys; yodeling reached theatres and music halls as entertainment in the 1830s.

Which Italian city's carnival was outlawed in 1797 and officially revived only in 1979?

Venice lost its carnival after the Republic fell to Napoleon in 1797 and its new Austrian rulers outlawed masks; apart from private parties it lay dormant for almost two centuries.

Hanami began in Japan's Nara period with the viewing of which blossoms, before cherry took over?

Plum; the practice came from the Chinese custom of enjoying poetry and wine beneath plum trees, and plum-viewing keeps its own name, umemi.

The Dragon Boat Festival honours Qu Yuan, who is remembered as what?

A poet, and a minister of the state of Chu, Qu Yuan is said to have drowned himself in the Miluo River; in legend, villagers raced out in boats to save him, the origin of the dragon boat races.

What are the leaf-wrapped sticky rice parcels eaten during China's Dragon Boat Festival called?

Zongzi are wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves; in legend, villagers threw rice into the river so the fish would eat it instead of the body of the drowned Qu Yuan.

In Finnish sauna tradition, what is the 'löyly'?

The steam off the hot stones: bathers throw water on the stove's rocks to raise a wave of löyly, then cool off by jumping in a lake or rolling in the snow.

UNESCO listed the smoke sauna tradition of Võromaa, a region of which country, in 2014?

Estonia: Võro families heat a chimneyless sauna until smoke fills the room, let it clear, then bathe together, and they use the same room for smoking meat.

Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the sun, is celebrated on June 24 in which city?

Cusco, once the Inca capital: actors playing the emperor and his court parade from the Qorikancha sun temple through the main square up to the Sacsayhuamán fortress above the city.

Bunraku, Japan's traditional puppet theatre, made its home in which city, where the National Bunraku Theatre stands?

Osaka, where chanter Takemoto Gidayū opened a puppet theatre in 1684 and teamed up with playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon, whose dramas took the art to its height.

Gamelan, the ensemble music of Java and Bali, keeps its beat with hand drums called what?

Kendang drums are played with the hands, and their player acts as the gamelan's conductor, setting the tempo and signalling the other musicians when to change section or stop.

Which fast-food chain's 'party barrels' became a Christmas tradition in Japan after a 1970s ad campaign?

KFC's first manager in Japan, Takeshi Okawara, pitched the barrels as a stand-in for the American holiday roast. Christmas had few traditions of its own there, so the idea filled a gap.

The Panama hat, woven from toquilla straw, actually originates in which South American country?

Ecuador shipped its straw hats to the Isthmus of Panama for sale, so buyers named them after the port, not the weavers. Gold-rush prospectors crossing the isthmus wore them against the sun.

In Spain and much of Latin America, which animal collects children's lost teeth in place of a tooth fairy?

A mouse named Ratoncito Pérez swaps each tooth for a small gift. The writer Luis Coloma made him a tooth dealer in an 1894 tale written for a boy king who had just lost one.

Which African country's 13-month calendar runs more than seven years behind the Gregorian one?

Ethiopia gives its first dozen months 30 days each, then mops up the leftover five or six days in a tiny thirteenth month called Pagumen.

In Iceland, which gifts are released in a pre-Christmas 'flood' each year and exchanged on 24 December?

Books became Iceland's Christmas gift of choice during the Second World War, when imported giftware was tightly restricted but paper was not. The tradition is called Jólabókaflóð, the 'Christmas book flood'.

The land-diving ritual of Vanuatu's Pentecost Island, a test of manhood, inspired which extreme sport?

Bungee jumping began when Oxford students who had been discussing Vanuatu's 'vine jumping' leapt off Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge on elastic ropes.

Which US city has dyed its river bright green for St. Patrick's Day for more than sixty years?

Chicago stumbled on the idea by accident: plumbers had been using dye to trace illegal pollution flowing into the river, and the city borrowed the trick for the holiday.

The croissant descends from the kipferl, a crescent pastry baked since the 13th century in which country?

Austria passed the idea to Paris when August Zang, a former artillery officer, opened a Viennese bakery there in the late 1830s and French bakers copied his crescents.

In France, April Fools' pranksters try to stick a paper cut-out of which animal on their victims' backs?

Fish gave the day its French name, poisson d'avril, or 'April fish'. A French poet was already using the phrase in 1508.

Which spiky tropical fruit is banned on Singapore's public transport because of its powerful smell?

Durian has an odour that can linger for days, so many hotels across Southeast Asia refuse it too. Parts of the region still call it the 'king of fruits'.

In which Balkan country does shaking your head from side to side traditionally signal 'yes'?

Bulgaria flips the nod as well: a single upward tilt of the head signals 'no', the reverse of what most visitors expect.

Fortune cookies, probably based on a Japanese cracker, caught on in the early 1900s in which US state?

California's best-known claim comes from San Francisco, where Makoto Hagiwara is reported to have served the cookies at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.

Eid al-Fitr, the 'festival of breaking the fast', marks the end of which month of the Islamic calendar?

Ramadan gives way to Eid at sunset on the night the new crescent moon is first sighted, which is why the festival can start on different days in different places.

Which powdered green tea is whipped with a bamboo whisk in the Japanese tea ceremony?

Matcha arrived in Japan in the late 1100s, when the Buddhist monk Eisai brought the whipped-tea method home from China. The whisk is carved from a single piece of bamboo.

According to the 'Great Race' folktale, which animal comes first in the cycle of the Chinese zodiac?

Rat hitched a ride across the river on the Ox's back, then jumped off at the far bank and rushed to the Jade Emperor ahead of everyone else.

Gimjang is the Korean custom of families and neighbours making a whole winter's supply of which dish?

Kimchi made for the winter was traditionally stored in large earthenware jars sunk into the ground, cool enough to slow the fermentation without letting it freeze.

In Japan, people fold one thousand origami figures of which bird to wish a seriously ill friend well?

Crane folding gets its number from the old saying that the bird lives a thousand years. Sadako Sasaki, a young survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, made the custom famous worldwide.

Which horned figure of Alpine folklore punishes naughty children on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day?

Krampus swats badly behaved children with birch rods while Saint Nicholas rewards the good ones with small gifts, a seasonal good-cop, bad-cop act.

Reggae, added to UNESCO's cultural heritage list in 2018, was born in the 1960s in which Caribbean country?

Jamaica's signature sound was recognised by UNESCO for giving a voice to issues of injustice, resistance and love far beyond the island.

Which spinning top, marked with a Hebrew letter on each side, do children play with during Hanukkah?

Dreidel letters are popularly read as 'a great miracle happened there', though they began as the rules of a gambling game: nothing, all, half and put in.

Which Arabic word, meaning 'permissible', describes food and drink allowed under Islamic law?

Halal has an opposite in the Quran: haram, or 'forbidden'. Pork is the most common example of a food on the wrong side of that line.

Mooncakes filled with lotus seed paste and a whole egg yolk are the traditional treat of which Chinese holiday?

Mid-Autumn Festival cakes hide the yolk at their centre to symbolise the full moon that the holiday celebrates. Some are stamped with a rabbit, another moon symbol.

Which Spanish city burns giant papier-mâché monuments in its streets to end the Fallas festival?

Valencia spares a single figure from the flames each year: the ninot that wins a popular vote becomes the 'pardoned' one and escapes the bonfire.

In which Asian country do children greet elders with 'mano', touching their forehead to the elder's hand?

In the Philippines, the young person first asks permission by saying 'Mano po', and the elder replies with a blessing, typically 'God bless you'.

Which food do Britons traditionally eat on Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the fast of Lent begins?

Pancakes used up the eggs, milk and butter that were given up for Lent. Pancake races are said to date from 1445, when an Olney housewife ran to church still holding her frying pan.

In Chinese culture, which gift is taboo because the phrase for giving it sounds like attending a funeral?

A clock can still change hands if the recipient pays a small coin for it, which turns the unlucky gift into a purchase. In most of China, watches go by a different word and are common gifts.

Mongolia's Naadam festival features the 'three games of men': wrestling, horse racing and which sport?

Archery is open to women as well as men at Naadam, whatever the festival's nickname says. The games are held every midsummer.

The Palio, a bareback horse race run twice each summer around a piazza, is held in which Italian city?

Siena's jockeys are often thrown on the tight turns of the piazza, and it is not unusual to see riderless horses finish the race. Each horse runs for one of the city's wards.

Fado, a mournful song style steeped in the longing called saudade, comes from which country?

Portugal's fado can be traced to 1820s Lisbon and is believed to have grown up in bohemian districts such as Alfama and Mouraria, with songs about the sea and the lives of the poor.

Bollywood, the nickname of India's Hindi film industry, blends 'Hollywood' with which former city name?

Bombay became Mumbai in the 1990s, yet the old name lives on in the nickname of the film industry that is still based there.

The Hebrew word 'shalom', used to say both hello and goodbye, literally means what?

Peace is the core sense, but the word reaches further: the same three-letter root gives Hebrew its words for 'whole' and 'perfect'.

Which animal, kept as a household pet elsewhere, is roasted as the delicacy 'cuy' in the Andes of Peru?

Guinea pig is so rooted in Peruvian cooking that a famous cathedral painting of the Last Supper shows Christ and his disciples dining on one.

Which religion's temples each run a langar, a free kitchen where all visitors eat together on the floor?

Sikhism feeds anyone who walks in, regardless of religion, caste or wealth. The meals are always vegetarian, which helps people of every faith accept them.

In the saptapadi rite of a Hindu wedding, the couple seal their vows by circling what seven times?

A sacred fire acts as the divine witness: vows spoken before it are considered unbreakable, with the fire god Agni blessing the union.

Which gift-giving feast of Pacific Northwest peoples did Canada's government outlaw from 1885 until 1951?

Potlatch hosts raise their family's standing by giving wealth away, which missionaries and officials condemned as wasteful and contrary to 'civilized values'.

The adumu, a jumping dance performed by young warriors, belongs to which people of Kenya and Tanzania?

Maasai warriors perform the adumu at Eunoto, their coming-of-age ceremony, which can involve ten or more days of singing, dancing and ritual.

In which country have Aymara women worn bowler hats since British railway workers introduced them in the 1920s?

Bolivia imported the hats from a factory in Italy for many years before local makers took over. Spanish speakers there call the hat a bombín.

In which country do drinkers avoid clinking beer glasses, a vow said to honour thirteen executed generals?

Hungary's vow, legend says, answered the victors who clinked beer mugs while rebel leaders were executed at Arad in 1849. It was meant to last 150 years.

Which Pacific nation, with roughly 840 living languages, is the world's most linguistically diverse country?

Papua New Guinea bridges the gap with Tok Pisin, an English-based creole that serves as the lingua franca between speakers of its hundreds of local tongues.

Rumspringa, a teenage 'running around' spell ending in a choice about baptism, belongs to which community?

Amish teenagers overwhelmingly come back: almost 90% choose to be baptised and join the church once their Rumspringa is over.

The whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi order were founded by followers of which 13th-century Persian poet?

Rumi's followers founded the order in the Anatolian city of Konya, and their famous turning is a form of dhikr, the remembrance of God, not a show.

In which island nation do families hold famadihana, rewrapping ancestors' remains and dancing with them?

Madagascar's 'turning of the bones' comes round every five to seven years and doubles as a family reunion, with relatives rewriting each ancestor's name on the fresh cloth.

Among which Saharan people do men, rather than women, wear the indigo face veil called a tagelmust?

Tuareg veils are dyed so heavily with indigo that the colour can rub off and tint the skin beneath, which earned the wearers the nickname 'Blue People'.

Which West African harp-lute, built on a calabash gourd with 21 strings, accompanies griot storytellers?

Kora players traditionally come from jali families, hereditary historians and storytellers who hand the craft down to their descendants. 'Griot' is the French word for them.

Thanaka, a paste ground from tree bark and dabbed in circles on the cheeks, is a custom of which country?

Myanmar's favourite cosmetic has been worn for more than 2,000 years, and it does double duty by cooling the skin and guarding against sunburn.

The qipao, a fitted dress also called the cheongsam, was popularised by socialites of which Chinese city?

Shanghai's high-society women set the fashion in the 1920s. Its other name, 'cheongsam', comes from the Cantonese for 'long dress'.

Silbo Gomero, a whistled form of Spanish that carries across deep ravines, is used on which island group?

Canary Islands whistlers on La Gomera can swap messages over distances of up to five kilometres, and since 1999 the island's children have been taught the skill at school.

The English word 'taboo' dates to 1777, when Captain Cook recorded it on a visit to which Pacific islands?

Tonga's nobles, invited to dine aboard Cook's ship, would not sit down or eat a bite of anything, and he noted their word for whatever was forbidden.

The dreamcatcher, a web-strung willow hoop hung over a cradle, began with which Native American people?

Ojibwe legend credits Spider Woman, who protected the children. When the nation spread too far for her to reach them all, mothers and grandmothers wove her webs instead.

At Japan's Setsubun festival, what do families throw at a relative in a demon mask, shouting 'Devils out'?

Roasted soybeans go by the name fukumame, or 'fortune beans', and the full chant ends with 'Fortune in!' Some households simply fling them out of the front door instead.