Tenor
Human beings are a fascinating species.
We’ve somehow made a tradition out of celebrating major milestones by setting off pretty, deafeningly loud explosives and standing around watching them burn holes in the night sky.
New Year’s Eve? Explosions.
Independence Day? More explosions.
Apparently nothing says “we made it another year” or “freedom!” quite like briefly turning the neighborhood into a war zone.
And fireworks are just the tip of the cultural iceberg.
Around the world, people have spent centuries developing traditions that look completely ridiculous when you don’t know the backstory. Throwing food, dressing like demons, chasing cheese down a hill, pelting each other with water, beating newlyweds with sticks… somehow, there was usually a reason.
Usually.
Here are some of the strangest traditions humans have kept alive long after the original explanation got buried under several centuries of “Well, we’ve always done it this way.”
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