30 Fun Facts You Might Not Have Known About These Cultures And Religions, As Pointed Out By Folks In This Online Group

In Sikhism, the turban is a symbol of total equality.

Before Sikhism was the religion it is today, the turban was worn only by the wealthy upper classes. The person who started the Sikh religion donned the turban to show people that everyone is truly wealthy in spirit, and that it is the duty of all people, rich or poor, to help one another.

So the Sikh turban became a symbol of equality in humanity, and as a sign that that person can be turned to for help.

How much which country you grew up in f***s with your sense of scale.

I was born and raised in Canada, lived here all my life. We're the second-largest country in the entire world by area, behind only Russia. When I went to visit some friends in Germany, we got talking about Canada and I mentioned how I went to university in a city that was "only" a four hour drive away from my childhood home. I commented that I liked it because it was far enough away to have some independence, but still close enough I could drop by and visit my family on holidays or breaks.

This caused them to laugh uproariously, much to my confusion. One of them eventually explained that a four hour drive would take you more than halfway across the entire country of Germany and it was not what any of them would consider "close". These same people, by the way, had a church just outside of their town that was over 800 years old and no one thought that was particularly remarkable.

That's when I learned the difference between European and North American cultures. A European thinks a 100 km trip is "far"; a North American thinks a 100 year old building is "old".

Not only is Jesus in the Quran, he is the most mentioned person in the Quran (if you count direct and indirect mentions). Islam teaches Jesus was a prophet and was a precursor to Muhammad.
In other words, Jesus is a central figure in the Quran, and the Islamic faith not only believes in Jesus but generally reveres him.

Buddha has snails protecting his head so that he can meditate in the scorching sun. And here I thought it was a hair style.

I taught English in a middle school in South Korea. When I was roaming around in the hallways, I found that not only were the girls holding hands, some boys were holding hands as well. They were just "friends". There weren't any homophobic cries or jokes being made. In North America, if that happened, you'd be automatically labeled gay.

In Turkish, there's a so-called "gossip tense." A specific kind of past tense that indicates that someone else told you this.

Chinese languages: mandarin and Cantonese and other Chinese dialects are mutually unintelligible but the written language is exactly the same. Two Chinese people speaking different dialects would have no idea what each other is saying but they could communicate by writing

When I first became Buddhist, the fact that the Buddhist response to the question of whether there was a creator of the universe or not is basically "It doesn't matter". It's one of a list of questions that the Buddha was asked and refused to answer one way or another, or even speculate on, because they're irrelevant to Buddhism. Coming from a Western background, it kind of blew away a lot of my ideas about the purpose and function of religion.

There’s a Micronesian island where all the inhabitants are color blind. They know when fruit is ripe by the smell. It just gave me a new understanding of how people see the world and the different pathways cultures take to solve the same problems.

maletgs said:
Japanese stamps instead of signatures.

samosamancer replied:
I lived there for 2 years and I’ve still got mine with my name in katakana. It’s a whole process to procure one and then have it registered as your official signature.

So much stuff from Japan.

I think if I had to pick one it was how seriously they take customer service there. Like, it's just night and day from literally anywhere else in the world I've been. At one point I needed to go visit a bank to get some cash and I asked the cashier at the store I was at where the nearest bank was. In most places in the world, if you got anything more than a shrug, it would be some vague directions; a really nice place might give you a map or an address for your phone and point out where you were going.

In Japan, the cashier bowed, stepped out from behind the cash register, grabbed an umbrella (a typhoon was passing through, so it was pissing down rain at the time) and *physically escorted me* the TEN BLOCKS between the store and the bank, holding the umbrella above my head the whole time (and getting absolutely drenched himself). I felt really bad about it and tried several times to tell him that an address was fine, but he insisted he would walk me there. It was just a totally different mindset towards how to treat a customer or a guest. Honestly pretty humbling.

Also the "no tips" thing threw me for a loop. Not that I didn't know about it, but I didn't know how seriously it was enforced. There was a point where I was running late for an important event and had taken a cab to where I was going. I still remember the total cost - 3481 yen; since I was in a hurry, I grabbed 3500 yen, hastily gave it to the driver and dashed out the door. I make it about 10 metres away and I suddenly hear, "Sumimasen! Okyakusan! Sumimasen!!" (Excuse me, sir! Excuse me!!) from behind me. I turn around and the cabbie has gotten out of his cab and dashed after me, just to hand me the 19 yen (about 19 cents) change that I'd left behind.

The Spanish eat dinner at like 10pm and party until like 4am and still have energy to go to work the next day. Idk where they get the reserve of energy to do that but it’s wild

I remember when I was a kid I was shocked when I realized a good chunk of the world did not eat rice regularly in meals lol.

Our internal visualization of time more or less follows the direction of writing.
I'm from Brazil, and i can only speak for Brazil, but this feels online with the rest of euro-centric culture.

I mean that when we talk about the Past or the Future, the trend to gesture from left to right, which just so happens to be the way we write. I spent some time in Taiwan, where they used to write from top to bottom and sure enough, "yesterday" is literally translated as "the day above" and tomorrow is translated as "the day below". And it's more than just that, think of timelines, horizontal versus vertical. The whole internal visualization seems to be related to that

I would love some input from someone who speaks a language written from right to left because right now this theory feels like grasping at straws but somehow kinda right. Please someone prove me wrong

That a lot of americans literally cannot get anywhere without a car and that getting your drivers license is as a result extremely vital for gaining any independence (which is why the car is so synonymous with the american meaning of 'freedom'). I've talked to americans for years and only recently thanks to Not Just Bikes did I find out just how car centric american culture is.

Adam Jones said:
India has more than 200 languages and dialects.

candygram4mongo replied:
India and China are both better understood not as analogous to European countries, but as what Europe as a whole would look like if they had a single government.

Danish people leave their children outside of stores when they go shopping.

Being from the USA, you would be arrested for that 100%. Immigrants have been in the past, probably more than I would ever have thought.

Kodiak-Marmoset said:
Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian: essentially the same language.

scelt replied:
Same people too, but don't even try to tell them that. If you would suddenly remove religion, I have no idea what would they find to argue about, but they would find something.
Source: I'm one of them. Won't tell you which, but as you see, it doesn't matter.

In Switzerland, perhaps A and D too, when you pick up the phone there is a routine that must play out before the conversation continues:

*ring ring*
Receiver: “Hello this is *business*, my name is *surname*, good day.”

Caller: “Hello Herr/Frau *surname*, my name is *surname*.”

R: “Good day, Herr/Frau *surname*”

C: “Good day, Herr/Frau *surname*. I am calling because ….”

Also you can’t just say goodbye and hang up, you will spend a good 2min saying goodbye and wishing the other a good day/evening/weekend and thanking them and saying you’re welcome until you both say “Also Tschüs” and **then** hang up.

I'm from South America, when I went to Germany I went to a meeting in a bar and ordered water out of politeness so I wouldn't be there without paying for anything, bc I don't drink alcohol. To my surprise water is free and from the tap. Started ordering sparkling water instead from there on lol.