25 Bizarre Tradition From Around the World – Part 2

In Ireland, there is a popular tradition known as The 12 pubs of Christmas. You must go to 12 different pubs in one night, having one drink (most commonly a pint of beer) in each Pub. Participants usually have 12 rules to follow, e.g "No sitting in pub 3", "No using the bathroom in pub 7" etc.

Japanese football fans always clean up their stadium after their World Cup Finals games, a tradition stemming back to the 1998 World Cup.

"Home Alone" has become a Christmas tradition in Poland, where it's known as "Kevin Sam w Domu" (literally "Kevin Alone in the House"), with Polish TV channels repeatedly airing the film around Christmas Eve for the last 25 years.

It’s a more than a 50-year-old tradition in Sweden to watch a specific Donald Duck cartoon at exactly 3 pm on Christmas Eve. Approximately half the country tunes in to watch every year.

The South Pole experiences a 6-month period of darkness, during which scientists at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station have a tradition of watching The Thing, a movie about a humanoid alien who attacks an Arctic research outpost.

Two rival churches in Vrontados, Greece shoot tens of thousands of fireworks at each other every Easter in a “Rocket War”. Both churches then claim victory and agree to settle the score next year. The tradition dates back to the Ottoman era when real cannons were used instead.

"Telling The Bees" is a traditional European custom where bees were told of important household events, lest they might leave the hive or die off. The newly married couples had to introduce themselves to the bees before entering their new home to avoid an unfortunate marriage.

It was a tradition in Ireland that if you donated a pint of blood, they'd give you a pint of Guinness to replace the iron.

Oman has a strong tradition of Scottish bagpipe music, owing to their Sultan having served in a Scottish regiment of the British Army.

There is a traditional British army drink called gunfire made of black tea and rum. Officers serve it to lower ranks on Christmas. During the Korean War, British soldiers once gave gunfire to some American MPs, causing them to drive an ARV and some Jeeps into a fence.