All traditions
2,281 traditions so far, best known first. 12,321 more are on the list to be written. Filter by region, kind and meal.
RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
🇷🇺 Dymkovo, RussiaDymkovo toysДымковская игрушка
Painted clay people, animals and whistles, shaped by women in Dymkovo near KirovCraft
🇧🇬 Bulgaria and 1 moreBaba MartaБаба Марта
A Bulgarian day on 1 March, when red and white martenitsi are given and wornFestival
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 morePolterabend
Guests smash porcelain the night before a wedding to wish the couple luckRite of passage
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreTopping out
A builders' rite for the day the last beam goes up, marked with a tree, a flag and a toastCraft
🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreKallikantzarosκαλικάντζαρος
A malevolent goblin of Greek and Balkan folklore, active in the Christmas season.Folklore
🇮🇪 Dublin, IrelandBarmbrackbairín breac
A sweet Irish fruit loaf with charms baked in, eaten at Halloween and on New Year's EveTable custom · Tea-time and snacking customs
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 moreTowel Day
An annual worldwide celebration on 25 May honouring the author Douglas Adams.Festival
🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreKnucklebones
An ancient hand game of tossing, catching, and scooping small bones or stonesGame
🇱🇹 Lithuania and 5 moreNativity of John the Baptist
A Christian feast day on June 24 that marks the birth of John the Baptist and anticipates Christmas.Festival
🇦🇱 Albania and 3 moreXhubleta
A rippling bell-shaped skirt made by Albanian women of the northern highlandsDress
🇪🇸 Spain and 4 moreDay of the Holy InnocentsDía de los Santos Inocentes
A 28 December day of pranks and fake news, kept in the Spanish-speaking worldFestival
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 2 moreShoe throwing
The act of hurling footwear for sport, wedding luck, protest or overhead display.Folklore
🇮🇹 Rome, ItalyAmbarvalia
An ancient Roman agricultural rite to purify farmland and ensure fertile cropsSpiritual
🇦🇱 Albania and 5 moreDodolaДодoла / Dodola
A Balkan rainmaking ritual where children dressed in greenery lead processions to call for summer showers.Festival
🇧🇬 Bulgaria and 5 moreKoledariколядники
A Slavic winter caroling custom of visiting homes with songs, masks and blessingsFestival
🇫🇷 FranceLa soule
A rough medieval ball game from Normandy and Picardy played between parishes on religious holidays.Game
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreTauroctonyταυροκτόνος
The sacred bull-slaying imagery at the heart of the ancient Roman Mithraic mysteriesSpiritual
🇮🇹 Rome, ItalyFeraliaFerālia
An ancient Roman day of offerings to the dead, marking the close of ParentaliaSpiritual
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreIncubationἐγκοίμησις
The sacred practice of sleeping in holy shrines to seek divine healing and dreamsSpiritual
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreNeed-fire
A ritual fire kindled by friction to ward off cattle plague, disease and harmFolklore
🇷🇺 Chukaly, RussiaRas'ken' OzksРаськень Озкс
A triennial gathering and ancestral prayer ritual of the Erzya people in MordoviaSpiritual
🇬🇷 GreeceSparagmosσπαραγμός
An ancient Greek Dionysian sacrificial rite of tearing an offering apartSpiritual
🇵🇱 Kraków, Poland and 5 moreTurońTuroń (Polish), Turoň (Slovak)
A shaggy horned beast led from house to house by carol singers at carnival timeFolklore
🇩🇪 Germany and 1 moreBiikebrennenBiikebrånen
Fires lit at sunset on 21 February to send winter away in North FrisiaFestival
🇵🇹 Portugal and 3 moreSalting the earth
An ancient ritual of scattering salt over ruined ground to curse its future useFolklore
🇱🇻 Riga, Latvia and 4 moreMeteņi
A Latvian pre-Lenten festival marking the turn of time and welcoming spring.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇬🇷 Orchomenus, GreeceAgrionia
An ancient Greek nocturnal festival dedicated to Dionysus AgrioniusSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇨🇭 SwitzerlandChalandamarz
A bell-ringing march on the first of March that sends winter out of the Grisons valleysSeasonal
🇦🇱 Gjirokastër, Albania and 5 moreDodola and Perperuna
A rainmaking ritual kept across Southeast Europe, where children dressed in greenery lead processions to call for summerSpiritual
🇦🇹 Austria and 2 morePerchten
Masked midwinter walks in the Alps, with carved wooden masks and sheepskinFolklore
🇵🇱 Poland and 6 morePolaznik
The first visitor to cross the threshold at Christmas, read as a sign of the year to comeFolklore
🇷🇴 RomaniaCapra
A New Year's ritual in Romania where a masked dancer visits homes to bring luck and predict the weather.Festival
🇷🇴 Bucharest, Romania and 2 moreCaloian
A Romanian rainmaking and fertility ritual centered on the creation, funeral, and rebirth of a clay effigy.Festival
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 4 moreTelling the bees
A Western European custom of informing honeybees about major household events like deaths and weddings.Folklore
🇵🇱 Poland and 3 morePodłaźniczka
A decorated evergreen branch hung over the Christmas Eve table in Poland and SlovakiaFestival
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreFairy-locks
A folk belief that fairies and spirits tangle the hair of sleeping children and animals.Folklore
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreMischief Night
An informal autumn evening of neighbourhood tricks, practical jokes and street pranksFestival
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreFlyting
A ritual contest of poetic insults exchanged between two parties in verse.Performance
🇷🇸 Serbia and 3 moreLazariceлазарице
A spring procession of girls in flower wreaths, singing door to door before Palm SundaySpiritual
🇩🇪 Worms, Germany and 2 moreHollekreisch
An Ashkenazi birth ritual where children name a newborn with a secular name.Rite of passage
🇬🇧 Ashbourne, United Kingdom and 1 moreRoyal Shrovetide Football
A medieval mob football game played in Ashbourne on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.Game
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 3 moreSelkieselkie fowk
The seal shapeshifters of Scottish and northern island folkloreFolklore
🇷🇺 Russia and 5 moreRussian superstitions
Everyday omens, etiquette rules, and household rituals observed across RussiaFolklore
🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland and 4 moreScheibenschlagen
A Central European custom where glowing wooden disks are flung from hillsides into valleys at dusk.Festival
🇩🇪 Überlingen, GermanyÜberlinger HänseleHänsele
A masked carnival figure kept by male citizens in Überlingen, Germany, during Fasnet and summer processions.Festival
🇬🇧 United KingdomBean-nighe
A Scottish spirit of the streams who washes shrouds to foretell deathFolklore
🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreCorpse road
Historical paths used to carry the dead to parish burial grounds across Britain and Ireland.Rite of passage
🇷🇸 Belgrade, Serbia and 5 moreSerbian traditional clothingсрпска народна ношња (srpska narodna nošnja)
The regional folk attire of Serbs, featuring wool, linen, and leather, worn for celebrations and cultural identity.Dress
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Biikebrennen: Borstenpinsel, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Flyting: Lorenz Frølich, Public domain, source
- Russian superstitions: Сергей Чеботарёв, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Überlinger Hänsele: Photo: Andreas Praefcke, CC BY 4.0, source
- Royal Shrovetide Football: Adrian Roebuck, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Martenitsa: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Dymkovo toys: Georg Pik, Public domain, source
- Kallikantzaros: Katolophyromai, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Topping out: PKS at Danish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Polterabend: 4028mdk09, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mischief Night: Roseohioresident, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Barmbrack: Solo Beckett, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Xhubleta: Albinfo, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Day of the Holy Innocents: Attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Public domain, source
- Turoń: Museum: The Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Kraków, CC0, source
- Chalandamarz: Claudio Schneider, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Polaznik: Carlton Alfred Smith, Public domain, source
- Perchten: Anita Martinz, CC BY 2.0, source
- Lazarice: Svetlina bov at Bulgarian Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Podłaźniczka: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Meteņi: Spekozols, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Towel Day: Bischy174, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Knucklebones: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Public domain, source
- Nativity of John the Baptist: Brakeet, CC0, source
- Ambarvalia: Alberto Pisa, Public domain, source
- Shoe throwing: Zarateman, CC0, source
- Koledari: Mikhail Germashev, Public domain, source
- Dodola: Andrey Shishkin, CC BY 3.0, source
- La soule: Unknown author Unknown author illustrator (based on a sketch by M.J.L., Public domain, source
- Tauroctony: Jastrow, Public domain, source
- Need-fire: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Ras'ken' Ozks: Erzianj jurnalist, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Sparagmos: WolfgangRieger, Public domain, source
- Salting the earth: C.W.M., Public domain, source
- Capra: Michał Elwiro Andriolli, Public domain, source
- Fairy-locks: Tsaag Valren, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Caloian: Costică Acsinte Archive, No restrictions, source
- Serbian traditional clothing: Kolega2357, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Corpse road: Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Scheibenschlagen: Josef Saurwein, Zams, Public domain, source
- Selkie: Carolyn Emerick, CC BY-SA 3.0, source