7 Bizarre Birthday Traditions Around The World that Will Scare the Hell Out of You

Some really unusual celebrations you have to reread to believe.

Birthdays have significant importance in our lives, and it is celebrated by everyone no matter what age you are or which part of the world you live in.

Birthdays celebrated in the West are pretty self-centred. How? Celebrants’ family and friends take time out of their busy lives to celebrate the occasion with their loved ones by baking treats and buying you presents and getting them drunk if the celebrant is old enough.

In some other parts, the birthday celebrant is the one who throws the birthday party, whether it be baking a cake or buying drinks. It’s all on you. As it is time when you celebrate the people in your life, and this makes sense to some extent.

But some celebrating traditions will boggle your mind, whether it be throwing a newborn off the roof of a temple or celebrating the birthday of everyone on the same day.

In this article, we will try to find out a bit more about the world’s birthday traditions, which you might find interesting or just bizarre.

1. Tossing Of Newborn From The Temple Roof In Delhi

Most of us celebrate a newly born person by giving well wishes for their future, gifts, flowers and so on, but in some parts of India, things are done rather oddly.

In Delhi, some believe that throwing an infant off the roof of Baba Umer Durga’s (shrine) will bring good fortune to the young one.

Yeah! I know what you might be thinking now, throwing an infant off the roof won’t kill the baby?

But in this case, the parents use some garment sheet or net to catch the falling baby.

2. Chinese Ways Are Way To Complex

China is a country with its way of life — from their calendar to its tea. They like to do things their way.

On birthdays in some parts of China, celebrating a birthday before time is okay but celebrating it late is a big no for them. Furthermore, some birthdays are better of skipped completely.

In China, the newly born are considered one year old at the time of their birth.

For Chinese men, the hassle is not much, and all they do is skip their 40th birthday and remain 39 years old for an extra year.

Still, for Chinese women, things are a bit tricky women their 30th birthday is believed to be associated with danger and chaos, so yeah, they remain 29 years old for one more year — the 33rd birthday is likewise.

To avoid bad luck, the women must hide somewhere and cut a piece of meat 33 times for the evil to be transferred into the meat.

Later on, the meat is thrown away, and when a woman is turned 66 years old similar ritual is followed, but the piece of meat is thrown by someone else, but the person who throws it should be a female.

3. Beheading Of Cake, In Denmark

People of Denmark celebrate their birthdays with all kinds of confectionaries — from sweet buns to ice cream to layered sponge cakes, but for the little ones, the big day is centred around Kagemand or the cake man.

Bakers make the cake man with sweet yeasted dough, then add the clothing and other details using colourful confections. There are two types of cakes kagemand (cake man) or kagekone (cake woman).

For detailing these cakes, the bakers use kids’ favourites like gummies, chocolates, berries and whatnot, but the most authentic cake man or kagemand are also decorated with the danish flag.

When it’s time for the birthday kid to cut the cake after singing the birthday song, the kid cuts the piece of ceremonial beheading.

The head is presented to the birthday kid, and the rest is for the family and friends.

4. Vietnamese One Birthday Concept

For the people of Vietnam, there is only one birthday, and they celebrate it on the same day.

The Vietnamese New Year, or Tet, is intended to indicate the coming of spring, and this day has its significance in Vietnam.

On this day, the people of Vietnam celebrate their birthdays collectively — whether it be men, women, or children, all celebrate on one single day.

On the other hand, the Vietnamese are having a change of thought. Some have started to question the uniform ageing policy and celebrate their birthdays in a rather conventional manner.

5. German 30's

Well, if you are a single male who just turned 30 and you are a German fellow, this day is not going to be someday that you want to keep a memory of apart from the kiss, of course.

Being single is already hard enough, but it’s a bigger problem in Germany. Germans have this custom for men who turn 30 must sweep the stairs of City Hall or local church while their friends with trash and debris bombard the person.

The person is not supposed to leave the stairs until a woman has kissed him. The idea behind it is to show potential mates how good they are at housekeeping.

This traditional act keeps the community alive and vibrant and helps the people who are having a hard time finding the right partner.

6. Sinister Clown Of Switzerland

A small city in Switzerland called Lucerne is known for its unique way of celebrating the birthdays of their young ones.

Parents (mischievous parents) sometimes hire a sinister-looking clown for the day to follow their child on their birthday and haunt the child until, finally throwing a pie in their face, the people of Lucerne believe this brings good luck to the child.

7. Buttery Canada

Canada has a very famous tradition of nose-greasing. This is where the celebrant is pinned down while the nose gets smothered with butter.

Canadians believe this is to ensure the individual is way too slippery for unwanted negativity or bad luck to get hold of them in the year ahead.

Conclusion

All things considered, birthdays play an essential role in everyone’s life no matter how or where it is celebrated, birthdays are something that makes us feel special and grateful.

We as humans have advanced a lot, but some things are fundamental to our being, and one of them is undoubtedly our Birthdays.

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