Traditions of Europe
Carnival, Midsummer, Christmas markets, Easter, the village fête and the long Sunday lunch. 698 traditions on EveryParampara so far.
Countries
🇦🇱 Albania 26🇦🇩 Andorra 4🇦🇹 Austria 49🇧🇾 Belarus 30🇧🇪 Belgium 40🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 13🇧🇬 Bulgaria 47🇭🇷 Croatia 30🇨🇿 Czechia 18🇩🇰 Denmark 25🇪🇪 Estonia 17🇫🇮 Finland 33🇫🇷 France 91🇩🇪 Germany 113🇬🇷 Greece 67🇭🇺 Hungary 21🇮🇸 Iceland 19🇮🇪 Ireland 72🇮🇹 Italy 109🇽🇰 Kosovo 17🇱🇻 Latvia 17🇱🇮 Liechtenstein 2🇱🇹 Lithuania 22🇱🇺 Luxembourg 14🇲🇹 Malta 15🇲🇩 Moldova 11🇲🇨 Monaco 1🇲🇪 Montenegro 11🇳🇱 Netherlands 28🇲🇰 North Macedonia 23🇳🇴 Norway 37🇵🇱 Poland 70🇵🇹 Portugal 25🇷🇴 Romania 38🇷🇺 Russia 98🇸🇲 San Marino 1🇷🇸 Serbia 42🇸🇰 Slovakia 16🇸🇮 Slovenia 24🇪🇸 Spain 96🇸🇪 Sweden 45🇨🇭 Switzerland 33🇺🇦 Ukraine 44🇬🇧 United Kingdom 193🇻🇦 Vatican City 3
Cities and towns
Rome 28London 26Moscow 17Dublin 16Vienna 16Athens 14Venice 14Paris 13Seville 12Kraków 11Riga 11Valencia 11
On the calendar
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 2 moreRushnykрушник
A sacred embroidered cloth used in East Slavic rituals, weddings and daily life.Dress
🇱🇻 LatviaDaina
Short, traditional Latvian folk songs and verses sung across the human life cyclePerformance
🇮🇪 Ireland and 2 moreWake
A gathering before a funeral, where family and friends keep watch over the deadRite of passage
🇷🇺 RussiaScarlet SailsАлые паруса
A summer graduation celebration on the Neva River in Saint PetersburgFestival
🇳🇴 Oslo, NorwayRussefeiring
A spring graduation rite of passage for Norwegian secondary school studentsRite of passage
🇲🇰 Galičnik, North MacedoniaGaličnik Wedding FestivalГаличка свадба
An annual village wedding festival celebrated every July in North MacedoniaFestival
🇮🇪 Ireland and 1 moreHandfastingceangal na lámh (Irish); pòsadh-bliadhna (Scottish Gaelic)
A couple's promise made with joined or bound hands, kept from betrothal to weddingRite of passage
🇪🇸 Spain and 5 moreCompadre
A ritual kinship made at a child's baptism, binding parents and godparents for lifeSpiritual
🇱🇹 Lithuania and 1 moreLithuanian folk songsliaudies dainos
Songs of love, weddings, work and war, sung in unison or in harmony across LithuaniaPerformance
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 4 moreKorovaiкоровай (Ukrainian), каравай (Russian)
A round wedding bread of Eastern Europe, baked with songs and shared by all the guestsTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇧🇬 Bulgaria and 4 moreBabindenБабинден
A Bulgarian feast honoring midwives and new mothers with rituals of bathing, feasting, and blessing.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇵🇹 Coimbra, PortugalPraxePraxe Académica
A set of student initiation rituals and traditions in Portuguese universities.Rite of passage
🇪🇸 Spain and 2 moreLas arras
Thirteen gold coins, blessed at a wedding and given by the groom to the brideRite of passage
🇷🇺 RussiaRussian wedding traditions
A Russian wedding runs two days to a week, with ransom games, crowns and toastsRite of passage
🇮🇪 Ireland and 1 moreKeeningCaoineadh
A sung mourning cry at Gaelic funerals, once led by hired women singersRite of passage
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 morePolterabend
Guests smash porcelain the night before a wedding to wish the couple luckRite of passage
🇺🇦 UkraineTraditional Ukrainian wedding
A wedding spread over many days, with matchmaking, bread, wreaths and songRite of passage
🇫🇷 FranceConfirmation
A Christian rite of laying on of hands that completes baptism and strengthens faithRite of passage
🇦🇱 Albania and 5 moreSworn virginburrnesha
A vow of chastity that lets a woman of the northern Balkans live as a manRite of passage
🇬🇷 Olympia, GreeceHeraean Games
An ancient Greek festival of running races for unmarried young women at OlympiaGame
🇷🇺 Russia and 5 moreRadonitsaРа́доница (Russian), Ра́даўніца (Belarusian)
A spring day when Orthodox families visit graves, share Easter food and greet the deadSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇬🇷 Greece and 2 moreAdelphopoiesisἀδελφοποίησις
A historical Christian church ceremony creating a spiritual bond of brotherhoodSpiritual
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreShoe throwing
The act of hurling footwear for sport, wedding luck, protest or overhead display.Folklore
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreLustratio
An ancient Greek and Roman cleansing rite using processions and animal sacrifice.Spiritual
🇫🇷 FranceMos Teutonicus
A medieval European funerary custom of boiling bones to return nobles home for burialRite of passage
🇮🇹 Italy and 4 moreRosalia
An ancient Roman festival of decorating graves, statues, and standards with fresh flowersSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇬🇷 Athens, GreeceAmphidromiaτὰ Ἀμφιδρόμια
An ancient Athenian family ritual welcoming a newborn around the household hearthRite of passage · Feasts and festival meals
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 7 moreVechornytsiвечорниці
Evening gatherings of Ukrainian youth, with songs, jokes, games and winter divinationSeasonal
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreSecular coming-of-age ceremony
A non-religious rite of passage for adolescents in Europe and North America, marking the transition to adulthood throughRite of passage
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreBreeching
A rite of passage when a young boy first wore trousers instead of a dress.Rite of passage
🇩🇪 Worms, Germany and 2 moreHollekreisch
An Ashkenazi birth ritual where children name a newborn with a secular name.Rite of passage
🇷🇺 RussiaOctobering
A short-lived Soviet naming rite that put the Red Star in place of the baptismal crossRite of passage
🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom and 1 moreMarriage vows
The promises a couple speak to each other as they marryRite of passage
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreCorpse road
Historical paths used to carry the dead to parish burial grounds across Britain and Ireland.Rite of passage
🇬🇧 London, United KingdomQueen Charlotte's Ball
A historic coming-of-age gala where young women curtsey to an ornate birthday cakeRite of passage
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreQuaker wedding
A silent marriage ceremony in a Quaker meeting, with no priest and no set orderRite of passage
🇷🇺 RussiaBlack wedding
A traditional Jewish crisis wedding held in a cemetery to ward off diseaseSpiritual
🇽🇰 Kosovo and 2 morePodruga
A Balkan custom in which a childless wife agreed to a second wife joining the householdRite of passage
🇬🇷 GreeceLipothymiarikosΛιποθυμιάρικος (Χορός της νύφης)
A men-only Greek wedding dance where one dancer pretends to faint and springs upPerformance
🇸🇰 SlovakiaName days in SlovakiaMeniny
The Slovak tradition of celebrating personal name days alongside birthdaysSeasonal
🇫🇷 France and 5 moreRespite SanctuarySanctuaire à répit
A historical Catholic custom of seeking brief revival to baptise stillborn infantsSpiritual
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreBridesmaid
The companions and attendants who support a bride during a weddingRite of passage
🇮🇸 IcelandIcelandic weddings
A blend of church rites and long feasts, where guests sit by family lines and gifts are saved for the morning.Rite of passage · Dinner
🇷🇺 Russia and 1 moreBride-showсмотр невест
A court custom in which emperors and tsars chose a wife from young women brought before themCeremony
🇮🇹 ItalyDies lustricus
An ancient Roman naming ceremony where a newborn was purified and given their first name.Rite of passage · Feasts and festival meals
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Bridesmaid: Photographer not credited; relative or work for hire of relative., CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Respite Sanctuary: Atelier Roussel à Beauvais 1878, Public domain, source
- Scarlet Sails: Kora27, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Russefeiring: Unknown author, CC BY 2.0, source
- Galičnik Wedding Festival: IvanaKrstik, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Wake: Julio Romero de Torres, Public domain, source
- Handfasting: Sander van der Wel, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Daina: Savannah Rivka, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Lithuanian folk songs: Gailė Paštukaitė, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Korovai: Olli Niemitalo, CC0, source
- Babinden: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Queima das Fitas: Fotografía realizada por: Ángel Serrano Sánchez de León, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bride-show: Publisher: Χρωμολιθογραφείον Ε. Λοβέρδου & Γ. Γρύσπου (1893-ca. 1914), Public domain, source
- Las arras: penny, CC BY 2.0, source
- Russian wedding traditions: GeorgeLouis, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Octobering: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Keening: W.H. Brooke, Public domain, source
- Polterabend: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Traditional Ukrainian wedding: Пимоненко, Николай Корнильевич, Public domain, source
- Rushnyk: Pavlo Boyko, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Sworn virgin: Edith Durham, Public domain, source
- Radonitsa: Perohanych, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Vechornytsi: Гейслер, Кристиан Готфрид Генрих, Public domain, source
- Heraean Games: Ingo Mehling, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Shoe throwing: Zarateman, CC0, source
- Mos Teutonicus: Cryx thypex, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Lustratio: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Rosalia: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Public domain, source
- Secular coming-of-age ceremony: Karsten Davideit, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, source
- Breeching: Attributed to John Badger , Boston, Masschusetts, Public domain, source
- Marriage vows: Tumi-1983, Public domain, source
- Corpse road: Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Queen Charlotte's Ball: The Illustrated London News, Public domain, source
- Black wedding: American Colony Photo Department, Public domain, source
- Confirmation: Unknown author, CC BY 2.0, source