10 strange traditional customs in America

Traditions vary from place to place around the world, and the customs of one region may be quite odd to others. Thanks to the vigorous publicity of Hollywood and other media, American culture and traditions have spread to every corner of the earth. But just as Americans find traditions in other places strange, people in other countries will find some American traditions quite strange. Next, we will introduce 10 traditions that Americans take for granted but find strange in other countries.

1. Holding tailback parties When Americans participate in sports games (especially football games), it is not enough to just attend and sit down. They have to arrive several hours in advance to prepare for the on-site game. People attending "Tailgate parties" will dress in the same color as the team and crowd the stadium parking lot. Everyone will barbecue food, drink adult cold drinks, play lawn games, discuss football and more.

Many people attach great importance to the layout of the picnic venue and even drag in stereos, televisions and satellite dishes to add color to the event. As for when this party will start, there is no earliest, only sooner! Some fans were already there at dawn to celebrate-even the night before the game! In addition to parking lot dinners, there are many traditions related to American football in the United States, such as the one we will talk about next.

2. Watching Super Bowl commercials Watching TV commercials is usually hard, but watching Super Bowl commercials is the opposite. Americans are the largest audience group for the Super Bowl. They are very much looking forward to the ads placed between the games and want to see which ads are the most eye-catching. Over the next few days, people enthusiastically debated and ranked which ad was the best, repeatedly and happily, and their interest in advertising exceeded even those sometimes lackluster competitions.

Which advertising costs the most? Which cost is surprisingly low? What is the value of these advertising slots? The problems are endless. To answer these questions, the following numbers may come in handy. The Doritos commercial was one of the most popular ads in 2011 and cost just $500 to shoot. About 60 commercials were broadcast during the competition, costing as much as US$3 million every 30 seconds. Despite advertising costs as high as US$100,000 per second, advertisers are still willing to spend a lot of money to "carry forward" this special American tradition.

3. Celebrating the American Dream Although the definition of the American Dream is not static and has been constantly adjusted in recent years, few people deny that most Americans teach their children that the American Dream is everyone's American Dream. Whether this is true or not is another matter, but that is not the topic we are going to discuss today.

From an emotional perspective, the American Dream evokes the passion for freedom among those who work hard to realize the American Dream, while also convincing these people that they enjoy equal rights on the road to prosperity. But from a more practical perspective, many people believe that realizing the American Dream has gradually been equated with consumerism and home ownership, and its core is no longer a purely creed concept. Regardless of the truth, passing on the idea that "every generation can realize the American Dream" remains a major American tradition.

4. Americans love to sensationalize the "Trial of the Century", and the American media is also willing to cooperate. They often use extremely exaggerated language to cause public uproar. As a result, every few years a new "Trial of the Century" is born in the United States. Each lawsuit is worse and more heartbreaking than the last one, so that the previous "Trials of the Century" have been completely forgotten.

The Trial of the Century often happens to celebrities such as Roscoe Arbuckle, O.J. Simpson and former President Bill Clinton, but most of the time, the Trial of the Century turns ordinary people into celebrities (whether they like it or not).

In the recent "Trial of the Century", an ordinary person, Casey Anthony, was pushed to the forefront of the media and became the focus of public attention. However, most of her "reputation" has attracted social condemnation, and the American public has spared no effort to attack her on social networking sites. Still, this situation will not last long, and a new "Judgment of the Century" will appear and replace it in a few years.

5. Pumpkin throwing competition Every year, as corn stalks shoot into the sky and leaves turn yellow, orange or red, Americans flock to their farms to celebrate the fall season. Most of the shows at these celebrations are actually quite ordinary, but may seem a little odd to outsiders. Typically, families would ride together on haycarts, pick pumpkins, travel through cornfield mazes, taste cider, play with farm animals, and so on.

The reason why these shows appear on our list is because of the Punkin Chunkin competition, where tourists are eager to see who can throw the pumpkin farthest. In order to satisfy this audience, air cannons, catapults, trebuchets, and machines that use torque and centrifugal force can all be used. In the end, everyone had a great time, except for the pumpkin.

6. Trick or treaty-or-treaty-Many cultures have historical traditions of dressing up and exchanging foods on Halloween, but few customs make children go door-to-door asking for sugar and keep saying "Trick or treaty-or-treaty-." It is widely believed that this strange custom originated in the United States, but interestingly, perhaps the people most confused by this custom are the children marching in front of their neighbors. Their parents don't allow them to talk to strangers or ask for candy all year round, let alone wander the streets in the middle of the night, but they suddenly make a 180-degree turn every autumn on this magical night to encourage this kind of trick.

However, the key to this prank is that they can only obtain these precious delicacies if they keep repeating the mantra of "trick or sugar" like a parrot. I hope no adults refuse to give sugar and ask these confused novices to "mess up". But in a few years, they will understand, and trick-or-treat has become an indispensable tradition for them in October.

7. President pardons turkeys The president pardons turkeys on Thanksgiving has become a tradition in the United States. For those who are not keen on traditional American festivals, Thanksgiving may seem confusing. But the most puzzling thing about this strange turkey pageant is the annual president pardons a turkey donated by the National Turkey Federation (NTF). Interestingly, Americans themselves don't understand where this strange tradition comes from.

Since 1947, the National Turkey Alliance has given Thanksgiving turkeys to the president every year, but it was years before President Kennedy pardoned turkeys for the first time to save them from the stove fire. However, this pardon happened accidentally and is far from the official "presidential pardon" of the United States. It was not until 1989 that President George Bush officially held the first "turkey pardon ceremony" in the Rose Garden. Since then,"President pardon turkeys" has become an American tradition.

8. Black Friday shopping spree Every year on Thanksgiving Day, millions of unpardoned turkeys become Americans 'meals, and a few hours later, the shopping army starts shopping for Christmas gifts. The weekend shopping craze begins on Black Friday and ends on CyberMonday. (Cyber Monday is an online shopping festival that has recently emerged due to online shopping.) In 2010, a survey by the National Retail Federation showed that after Thanksgiving, more than 200 million customers in the United States shopped online or in physical stores, of which 106 million Americans plan to shop online on the first Monday after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday shopping hours cater to the needs of most citizens, but some diehards rush to the mall early to queue up, which is exhausting. There are many crazy shoppers who want to buy large quantities or specific items, and occasionally even riots or serious stampedes.

9. Groundhog Day Forecast You may not believe that Americans would make spring outing plans based on a groundhog's "little trick." Every year on Groundhog Day, American groundhogs come out of their burrows to "predict" how long spring will come. The most famous of them is Punxsutawney Phil from the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Spring will come early, or winter will last for six weeks, depending on whether the little guy can see his shadow. Although human weather prediction technology has developed steadily for hundreds of years, the tradition of groundhog forecasting seasons has been continued since the 19th century.

10. inches, tea spoons and a ton of bricks The metric unit of measurement is fully applicable in the United States-the U.S. Congress first approved the use of metric units in 1866 and has since promoted metric units many times-but this is not the case as we know them in the American tradition. Although today's government requires some public sectors to use the metric system and has always encouraged private companies to use metric units, most people do not take the metric system seriously and instead always ignore its existence. In this regard, the United States is indeed a special case for industrial countries. In 1975, in order to promote metric units of measurement, the U.S. Congress passed the MetricConversion Act and established the U.S. MetricBoard, which is responsible for the conversion of metric units. But obviously, this committee is not authoritative enough. The public sneaks at metric units from the bottom of their hearts and still uses traditional units such as miles, pounds, and ounces as if nothing had happened. Although the government has been working hard to implement metric units, it has had little success.