The unusual customs of the world

5. Need a lift love?

Some men will go a long way to win their wife’s weight in beer. Which is exactly what participants at Finland’s annual Wife Carrying World Championships do – and they go a long way with their wives on their backs!

Known as eukonkanto in Finnish, this madcap custom has roots dating back some 200 years; theories about its origin whirl around a band of woman-stealing outlaws.
Competitions take place across the globe, but Finland’s yearly race is the original. Carrying techniques include piggyback, fireman’s lift or Estonian style!

6. Teeth tossing in Greece

It might seem odd in some cultures to pop a child’s tooth under their pillow and wait for a fairy to swap it for cold hard cash, but customs always seem strange to those on the outside. In Greece, for example, you might be surprised to learn that youngsters are encouraged to throw a recently liberated baby tooth onto the roof.

Accompanying the toss is a wish for strong adult teeth. There are many wacky customs around the world about milk teeth, though this particular practice has travelled much further than Greece.
7. Burial of the sardine in Tenerife

There is no better way to put the past behind you than to…bury a sardine. Or so say party-loving Spaniards, who literally make a song and a dance out of this zany custom.

With the annual Carnival at an end on Ash Wednesday (the day before Lent – the start of the Christian period of abstinence), the high-spirited behaviour of Carnival (and the rest of the year!) is put in the past with the symbolic burial of a sardine effigy – after a funeral procession with black-clad mourners, of course.
The burial of the sardine – El Entierro de la Sardina – is observed elsewhere in Spain, though Tenerife’s warm winter weather appeals to visitors.