60 Fun Facts About World Cultures

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

Diyas, or small oil lamps, are set in rows on doorsteps and windowsills; the five-day festival marks Rama's return to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana and honours Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity.

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

Marigolds, called cempasúchil from the Nahuatl, are believed to guide spirits home with their colour and scent; they cover ofrendas, the home altars holding the favourite foods and drinks of the departed.

On which dates is the Day of the Dead traditionally celebrated?

The first two days of November: 1 November, Día de los Angelitos, is for children who have died, and 2 November for adults; UNESCO listed the tradition as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.

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; the splashing grew out of gently pouring scented water over Buddha images and elders' hands to wash away the old year.

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, has held the tomato fight on the last Wednesday of August since a scuffle between friends in 1945; since 2013 it has been ticketed and capped at 20,000.

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

The six bulls that run in the morning are the same six fought in the ring that afternoon.

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

The Lantern Festival, Yuanxiao, closes the celebrations on the 15th day under the first full moon of the year, with lantern displays and sweet glutinous rice balls called tangyuan.

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

The word for four sounds like the word for death, which is also why some Hong Kong towers skip every floor from 40 to 49.

Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrated for over 3,000 years, falls on which astronomical event?

The spring equinox: Nowruz begins at the exact moment the sun crosses the celestial equator, usually 20 or 21 March; its roots are Zoroastrian, and families set a haft-sin table of seven items beginning with the letter S.

Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, is celebrated on the full moon of which lunar month?

The eighth lunar month's full moon, in September or early October; families return to ancestral hometowns, tidy graves and share half-moon rice cakes called songpyeon.

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' so the name would have a symbolic seven letters, one for each principle.

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

The Bastille, a royal prison holding just seven inmates, fell to a Paris crowd on 14 July 1789; the Champs-Élysées parade each year is billed as Europe's oldest regular military parade.

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 disguise went door to door reciting a verse or song in exchange for food or coins, a custom Scottish and Irish emigrants carried to North America in the 19th century.

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

By pressing noses together, often with foreheads touching, so the ha, or breath of life, is exchanged; a visitor who has shared the hongi is said to become one with the people of the land.

The Indian greeting 'namaste' is spoken with palms pressed together in a gesture called what?

Añjali Mudrā, from the Sanskrit for 'offering', joins the palms at the heart; the Thai wai is built on the same gesture, and the standing yoga pose that uses it is pranamasana.

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

Hold the hands higher and bow 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 business etiquette, the casual eshaku bow inclines the torso by roughly how many degrees?

Keirei is deeper and saikeirei, the most formal, deeper still; bowing manuals go back to the samurai of the Kamakura period.

A kimono is wrapped left over right for everyone except whom?

A person who has died is dressed right over left for burial, so the living always wrap left over right; the garment is cut from a single long bolt called a tanmono.

A sari can be as long as how many yards of unstitched fabric?

9 yards: the Maharashtrian nauvari and other traditional drapes use a nine-yard length, though most modern saris run five to six; the commonest drape, the Nivi style, originated in the Deccan.

The modern Scottish "small" kilt is essentially the bottom half of what 16th-century predecessor?

The great kilt of the 16th century was a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak.

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

Ghana: kente originated with the Asante of Kumasi and the Ewe of the Volta region, and was historically worn toga-style by royalty; the name comes from kenten, the Akan word for basket.

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

Vietnam's áo dài, literally 'long tunic', took its modern fitted form in 1930s Hanoi under the designer Cát Tường, known as Le Mur; it is worn by students, brides and flight attendants alike.

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 should chopsticks never be left standing upright in a bowl of rice?

It resembles incense offered to the dead: sticks stood upright in a bowl of rice look like the joss sticks burned at funerals and ancestral altars across China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

Haggis became Scotland's national dish largely thanks to 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: several towns in the Centre-du-Québec region, including Warwick and Drummondville, claim to have invented it in the late 1950s.

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

Brewers' yeast extract, the leftover from Melbourne's Carlton & United breweries, was turned into the spread by chemist Cyril Callister in 1922 as a home-grown rival to Britain's Marmite.

Which Spanish region is the home of flamenco?

Andalusia, in Spain's south, bred flamenco in the 18th and 19th centuries among the gitano, or Romani, communities of Seville, Jerez and Cádiz; UNESCO listed it as intangible heritage in 2010.

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

The Río de la Plata: tango grew up in the 1880s in the dockside tenements of Buenos Aires and Montevideo on either bank, and Argentina and Uruguay jointly won it UNESCO heritage status in 2009.

Capoeira is played in a circle called a roda to the music of which bow-shaped instrument?

The berimbau, a single-string musical bow with a gourd resonator, leads the roda and sets the pace of the game; capoeira won UNESCO intangible heritage status in 2014.

The 'Ka Mate' haka performed by New Zealand's All Blacks is attributed to which Māori war leader?

Te Rauparaha, the Ngāti Toa chief, composed Ka Mate around 1820 after hiding from pursuers in a kūmara pit; the All Blacks performed it on their 1905 Originals tour.

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

Circular breathing, inhaling through the nose while pushing stored air out of the cheeks, keeps the drone unbroken; Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia developed the instrument at least 1,000 years ago, and the Yolŋu call it the yidaki.

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

Salt; a rikishi loses by leaving the dohyo or touching the ground with anything but the soles of his feet.

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

Shins, used for the roundhouse kick, complete the eight points of contact with fists, elbows and knees; fighters enter the ring wearing a mongkhon headband and pra jiad armbands.

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

The caber toss; the games centre on piping, drumming, dancing and 'heavy athletics' and are held wherever the Scottish diaspora settled.

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

A wheel of Double Gloucester cheese, weighing 7–9 lb, is chased down a slope of about 50 percent on the Spring Bank Holiday Monday; the first runner to the bottom wins the cheese.

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, a custom popularised by Alicante growers around 1909 to sell a surplus crop.

In Orthodox Jewish communities, at what age does a girl become bat mitzvah?

12: in Orthodox practice a girl reaches religious adulthood at 12 and a boy at 13; most Reform and many Conservative communities mark bat mitzvah at 13 for everyone.

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

Mehndi, from the Sanskrit mendhikā, is the paste of dried henna leaves piped into lace patterns on hands and feet; the pre-wedding 'Night of the Henna' was kept by Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus alike.

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

The evil eye: the nazar boncuğu's concentric blue, white and black rings are meant to catch and reflect an envious glare; amulets against the evil eye date back about 5,000 years to Mesopotamia.

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

Wabi-sabi, rooted in the Zen tea-ceremony aesthetics of the 16th century, prizes the weathered, asymmetrical and transient; tea master Sen no Rikyū's rustic tea huts embodied it.

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

'Humanity': ubuntu comes from the Nguni Bantu languages, where it means humanness or humanity towards others; it is often glossed 'I am because we are', and Tutu's ubuntu theology shaped the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Hawaii celebrates Lei Day, honouring the flower garland, on which date?

May 1: poet Don Blanding proposed the holiday in 1927 and the first Lei Day followed in 1928, with the slogan 'May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii'; leis are given to graduates and departing loved ones.

The first Russian matryoshka nesting doll set was made in the 1890s and contained how many dolls?

Eight dolls made up the first set, carved by Vasily Zvyozdochkin and painted by Sergey Malyutin around 1890, from an outer peasant girl holding a rooster down to a swaddled baby.

According to local records, the Mexican piñata tradition began in which town, for teaching catechism?

Acolman, north of Mexico City, where Augustinian friars at the monastery were authorised in the 1580s to hold 'misas de aguinaldo' with piñatas whose seven points stood for the deadly sins; the Aztecs had already broken pots for Huitzilopochtli.

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.

The Carnival of Venice was abolished in 1797 and revived in which year?

1979: after the Republic fell to Napoleon in 1797 and Austria banned masks, the carnival lay dormant until the Italian government and Venetian civic groups revived it in 1979.

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, a minister of which ancient Chinese state?

Chu: the poet-minister Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River in 278 BC after Chu's capital fell to Qin; the festival, on the fifth day of the fifth month, became the first Chinese holiday listed by UNESCO in 2009.

What are the sticky rice dumplings eaten during China's Dragon Boat Festival, the Double Fifth, called?

Zongzi; dragon boat races and zongzi were southern Chinese traditions that became attached to the holiday.

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

The steam off the hot stones, the heat and vapour that rise when water is thrown on the kiuas; the oldest Finnish saunas were pits dug into slopes.

UNESCO inscribed 'Sauna culture in Finland' on its intangible heritage list in which year?

2020: UNESCO inscribed Finnish sauna culture in December 2020, the country's first entry on the list; the smoke sauna tradition of Võromaa in Estonia had been listed in 2014.

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

Cusco, the old Inca capital, stages the re-enactment at the fortress of Sacsayhuamán; the festival marked the winter solstice and the Inca New Year, and the modern version dates from 1944.

Bunraku, Japan's traditional puppet theatre, was founded in the early 17th century in which city?

Osaka, where chanter Takemoto Gidayu opened a puppet theatre in 1684 and teamed with playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon.

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

The kendang, a pair of double-headed barrel drums played with the hands, leads tempo changes and cues the ensemble; metallophones struck with mallets dominate the sound, joined by bamboo flutes, a bowed rebab and a zither-like siter.