Not that there is anything wrong with routine or tradition but we have to admit some repeated behavior... i.e, "tradition," is just outdated, overdone and over. And often it has been brought to light that some actions of inhumanity are disguised as tradition and they must be impeded.
Redditor u/astralrig96 wanted to discuss what age old musts should be done away with by asking.... Which tradition needs to die?
No Thank You....
Giphy
Came here to say "Thank You Cards"... Saw "honor killings" and "female genital mutilation" and decided to reevaluate everything in my life. Zuikis9
What's Up Doc?
Working new doctors to exhaustion. At this point it's just hazing. Beigecarpet
In my country new doctors are expected to work in rural hospitals. The thing is the doctor to patient ratio in Thailand is 1 :1500 sth. That's mean I could end up being the director of a hospital in the middle of nowhere working upward to 36 hours shift at 25 years old. Themrchester
Jaws.
Shark hunting when hunters remove the fins and throw the shark back in the water. That's both wasteful and downright evil making the poor thing suffer. untilidrown
I was just about to add this but instead I'll second your comment! Way too many sharks are killed and the fear-mongering drives me crazy. Scuba diver/hung out with many toothy bois. They're cool af. oliviaroseart
More than 40!
Accepting overworking to be a normal thing. unpopular_o_pi_nion
Where I used to work salaried engineers were there was an unspoken rule that you were expected to put in regular 50-60 hour weeks. I knew one guy who just refused to do it and left his desk the second he hit 40. A lot of middle managers hated him for it but they couldn't fire him since he got his work done. Trunky_Coastal_Kid
*every. single. year.*
Giphy
That you have to get Christmas presents for people no matter how broke you are to prove you care. I work in the debt relief industry and our enrollment rates skyrocket in January *every. single. year.* It ain't right, man! Navelhazey
No Blood....
Where I live, theres one tradition where whenever a girl gets her first period, for her to avoid growing pimples on her face, she has to smear the blood on her face.
My mom did this to me when I was 11, she added water to the blood thinking at least it wouldn't be as bad. I'm forever scarred.
Edit: Since lots of you guys are asking, no it does NOT work. Although I don't get much acne, a lot of the other girls I know who did this tradition have had acne problems from puberty until now. mikeemouse03
I Do Not.
There's a country that abducts girls and forces them into marriage. It's illegal but they don't enforce it because its tradition. darkespeon64
This also happens in Namibia with OvaHimba women. It the women who arrange everything and they will drag a girl who is kicking and screaming and force her to marry. MoefsieKat
Destruction.
Destroying public, or private property when your city's sports team has won a title. JJJones345
When I was a kid the Packers won the super bowl. I was born in Wisconsin. My father and his biker friends (large, flabby men with tattoos) went streaking.
Childhood me thought THAT was wild.
Adult me realizes it was in the dark and in an area almost no one could see. So not even that impressive. Bat_City_Boi
Happy Holidays....
Commericalization of holidays. We don't celebrate one's that are to make money. You show it thru the year. And there's no need to spend so much on Christmas. pippins-sunshine
Thanksgiving has become almost like an afterthought in recent years as stores now open at 6pm for Black Friday shopping. Probably the most American traditional holiday celebrated by everyone has to be botched for those retail workers who have to go to work that day. Chicken_fondue
Bling.
Giphy
Diamond wedding rings. Overpriced and a nasty industry. aceofspadesx1
Lab created stones are so much prettier. Also Moissanite? Holy crap the sparkle off those stones is so intense, and at a fraction of the price of a diamond, and is nearly as hard as a diamond as well (Diamond is a 10 on the Mohs' scale while Moissanite is between 9.25-9.5). trainercatlady
Happy Birthday!
Fancy birthday parties for kids, and the ones that include all the parents getting drunk. The parties seem to always be about popularity & making each party the *best* party. I have a sister that did this & it got so ridiculous. The parties cost hundreds of dollars more every year & every year it was more about the adults & less about the kids. What ever happened to just having kids, some games, a cake & gifts? Not saying there shouldn't be any parents, but it shouldn't be about the parents having fun. It's about the kids!
lefthandbunny
I Do... not!
Big expensive weddings.
xavierdc
Even worse, destination weddings.
When they have a whole week of crap planned, and now i gotta drop 5k for flights and accommodation for the family on top of some damn 800 dollar kitchen aid mixing machine from their luxury as a wedding register.
How about I just give you 2k cash and you host it at your house which you can now afford because you used that money towards a deposit rather than providing Becky with all you can drink Bellinis so she can pose and hashtag #FIJI#BELLINIS#BESTLIFE#FOOL to impress her instatrash friends.*Breathe* /rant.
DuracellCosmonaut
Maleness....
Giphy
Acting like men in general are inept when it comes to household chores and childcare. It should be considered normal for men to be taking responsibility for these sorts of things!
CNRavenclaw
Being born and living in Italy this is a big thing: don't know how many families have their father figure not even being able to cook an egg or not even allowed to do it!
My father has pretty much went in full home husband now since he went into retirement.
GeneraleRusso
The Farewell.
Expensive funerals and the works. The judgement of someone when they literally just want to be cremated and the ashes scattered as a ceremony.
Excessive and over the top Christmas celebrations and all the pressure usually falling on one person which is usually the mum.
How people choose to live in this economy. If someone finds it better to be living with their parents then so be it, if someone lives with their parents and grandma and other family members then so be it. If someone is in their late 30s or 40s and still with room mates then who gives a poop. I hate the belief that the ideal is to have your own place and even a nuclear family unit in this day and age.
It's of course more than fine if you believe in these things, I just dislike the judgement when someone might not conform.
FinalGirl1990
"get their feet wet."
Living vicariously through your children just because you want them to achieve something you never could or would do yourself.
That tears families and generations apart. Let your children live their own lives when they become adults and let them "get their feet wet."
I gotta sit.
Giphy
Standing at the position of attention for long ceremonies, such as a change of command, in the 120 degree heat. We would have to supply troops for all the formations when I was stationed in Phoenix. Numerous troops pass out every single time but they continue to put people thru it because tradition.
madtrippinfool
Retail Holidays.
Black Friday. In the last few years it has encroached into thanksgiving Thursday. And the tradition of competing for an item by waking up early the next day has devolved into rioting before the turkey is even cold.
Ickababoo
Float Away....
Releasing balloons for celebrations. The devastation it wreaks on wildlife is horrendous and inexcusable.
TheOtherDonald
Honestly, balloons in general. Useless and the helium filled ones are creating a helium shortage if I remember correctly. They're literally trash, usually single use, and so cheap that they're -everywhere-.
loopsdefruit
All the Same...
Being forced to only marry somebody who is of the same ethnicity because if you don't, you're going to be disowned.
boyddd2012
I had to make a throwaway for this. My family is Indian and I'm honestly not sure whether I can marry who I want because of this. I know that my brother is bi and I want him to date who he wants without fear of being rejected by our parents.
throwawaydave69_
Smashed...
Giphy
Smashing the birthday person's face into the cake. It's messy and a waste of good cake.
00gusgus00
Also smashing wedding cake into each other's faces. If you're gonna do the "feed the cake" tradition, don't shove cake up your new spouse's nose.
gracefrenzi
What could possibly go wrong?
It turns out there are so many variables that can contribute to making the bride and groom's celebration a major matrimonial miss.
Curious to hear examples of weddings gone wrong, Redditor lolf**kno asked:
"Those who have been to a ruined wedding, what happened?"
Dramatic brawls and speeches plagued these weddings.
Catty Attendees And Booze
"Very beautiful wedding in a huge barn at this apple orchard. They must have spent a ton of money on the decorations and catering because it looked like something out of a magazine. The ceremony was great, the flower girl did her thing, the vows got everyone choked up. Everything seemed to be going well. Not even 15 minutes into the reception the mothers of the bride and groom getting into a full out brawl, hair pulling, red wine being thrown. Their sons jump in to defend their honor, chairs start being throw, tables are flipped, parents are grabbing children and running for their lives."
"The bride and groom are horrified and leave immediately and head back their honeymoon suite. My fiancé and I left after this as well but we heard from some other friends that most people ended up staying and getting wasted at the open bar on the bride and groom's dime. Apparently, the fight started because one of the groom's sister complimented the bride's grandmother's dress. The bride's mom thought she was being sarcastic and called her a b*tch, then the drama ensued. Mind you they had all been pregaming the wedding pretty hard."
Playing For The Drunk Uncle
"I played a wedding where as we started playing the set, everyone ran outside and nobody was to be seen for the rest of the night."
"I originally assumed it was because nobody liked us but the bride came in afterwards and said there was a huge fight involving multiple members of both families and everyone basically went home upset, injured or in a police van."
"We couldn't stop playing since we were payed and it was our job, and the only person watching was the drunk uncle dancing on his own asking for requests we didn't know."
Maid Of Honor Speech Goes Off The Rails
"Was a guest of friend of the bride, did not know anyone attending. Very expensive over the top place, several hundred guests of this very Italian wedding. Maid of honor grabs mic at the cocktail hour begins her speech, rambling, drunk. Quickly devolves to stating the recently deceased mother of the bride was against this wedding and that's basically what killed her. Plus Vinny will never give up sex workers. She is tackled by several people and dragged away."
"The happy couple is separated and divorced within a year."
This is what happens when bad luck crashes weddings.
Tumbling Into The Sunset
"I work at a golf course with a lot of history behind it. We do wedding venues inside the clubhouse and the actual ceremony is held outside by the historic water fountain and large pond."
"First problem was the weather. I live in the high desert and it was very warm. A solid 90 degrees that day and it was also pretty windy. So everyone's outside, no umbrellas, no ezups."
"The next problem, and probably the worst, was the golf cart incident. The bride and groom wanted to 'ride into the sunset' on one of our golf carts. Drive around a little bit on the golf course. To be fair, it is beautiful on the course during sunset. However the cart had somehow gotten a nail in the tire, tire went flat, battery on the cart went crazy and the cart ended up freaking out. It came to an complete stop from 15mph to zero. The wheels and mechanisms locked up, almost seizing. Both the bride and groom (fairly overweight mind you) both fell out and rolled over a few times. They were totally okay, just a few bruises and perhaps a bruised ego or two. So retrieving that cart was fun."
"And last but not least, the power inside the clubhouse went out to do the high winds. There was no after party available. Only the cake was cut, hardly any food was given out. Yeah, not a great day to cover for someone on your day off."
Foggy Memory
"I was not born yet, but my parents rented the observation deck on the Hancock building in Boston for their reception. Tallest building in the city, beautiful view. My dad pored over historic weather charts to figure out what day was statistically most likely to be nice out. Day of the wedding comes and of course, thick fog unlike anything they'd ever seen before. Couldn't see a thing out the windows of the room they had picked specifically for the view."
"Worked out well though, they were happily married for nearly 30 years before cancer took my dad's life a few years ago."
"There's one other funny anecdote from that wedding: The wedding was held in Kings Chapel, which is an incredibly historic church here in downtown Boston that's somewhat of a major tourist attraction. To close that on a weekend afternoon for a wedding, it turns out, was not very expensive. The tourists waiting outside to see the church didn't know that, though, and someone started the rumor that my parents were incredibly wealthy, maybe even Kennedys. As a result, there were tons of people taking photos of them when they left the ceremony. Not sure if any of them ever figured out that my parents were most certainly not rich or famous."
Morbid Surprise
"I was best man at my sister in laws wedding (stepped in for the brother of the groom, that's another story entirely)."
"For a whole year of planning all the bride (SIL) wanted was a dove release while they said handwritten vows to each other. Very small, non denominational (most of the family are atheist anyway) wedding."
"Day arrives (early summer) and something is off with the bird handlers. They show up a bit late and are sourcing help from the wedding party to get everything in line. When the time comes to say their vows I help the handler carry the chest with the doves in it over to what is to be the altar where the bride and groom are standing."
"Vows are just about wrapping up and the handler gives ME the signal to open the chest. I open it and see 20-30 DEAD DOVES IN THE CRATE!!!! I immediately close it to try and limit who knows what happened. Too late. The look of horror on the bride's was all that was needed. We spent the next few hours trying to cheer everyone up but by the end of the reception the entire wedding party had organized and filed animal cruelty complaints on the handler. It was all anyone could focus on."
Tragic losses unfortunately befell leading up to or at a couple's nuptials.
The Wedding Guest Who Left Too Soon
"When I was 6 or 7 I went to a cousin's wedding. Everything was fabulous for little me, so much sugar everywhere, basically heaven. The reception was in a big community center that was reserved for the occasion. Went to the girls' bathroom, passing by the men's room to see my uncle on the floor. Went back to the main room to tell my dad my uncle was looking weird. Well, uncle had a stroke and had died."
"The bride spent the rest of the afternoon crying, and everyone except close family left."
"Bright side is the mariage is still going strong 20 years later, despite what happened that day."
A Terminal Diagnosis
"Leading up to my friends wedding his father had been battling cancer after a terminal diagnosis. And it was touch and go whether he would be well enough to attend the wedding, in the end he was too unwell to attend despite wishing that he could."
"Just as we got to the wedding reception my friend was informed that his father had just passed away. It was devastating."
Wedding Crashers
"Happened to my classmate. He is successful middle level manager, divorced, about 35yo or so. Found a girl of his dreams but from a provincial poor town. The girl insisted to have the wedding in her town to show off her 'success.' The wedding is crashed by her old friends including male friends who are not that sophisticated and have some tense feelings towards the successful groom from the city. Somebody starts a fight in the middle of wedding, groom is trying to stop it and got stabbed in the back. Died right there. And he was my classmate."
An Unfortunate Trespassing
"The wedding was at a state park that's famous for its giant gorge/waterfall. I don't know whose idea this was, but someone suggested a photo overlooking this gorge and everybody was game. The wedding party went around a stone security barrier and the maid of honor literally fell off the cliff to her death. It was like 500+ feet."
With a lot riding on a wedding to go off without a hitch, the mounting pressure is one where something is surely to buckle.
And because wedding guests are usually inebriated and high on the buzz of celebration, they throw caution to the wind and make some choices they wouldn't make under normal circumstances.
People's ill-advised actions can have regretful consequences, but no one expects death to be an outcome.
Fortunately, the weddings I've attended or heard about from friends were not as catastrophic as the anecdotes mentioned above.
While the Redditors' stories are sorrowful, it gives me a sense of relief these devastating examples are rare occurrences.
Have we met? That is an actual question I asked a gift giver once. (Who shall rename nameless) Football tickets. FOOTBALL TICKETS?! Who? What? I can't.
Looks Familiar
Broad City Wow GIF by Comedy CentralGiphy"My own scarf. Yes, that's right, my mother went into my room took my only scarf, wrapped it and gave it to me like it was a new scarf."
Devastation!
"Thought I was getting a bike for my 15th birthday but my foster parents announced that they were sending me to a group home after living with them for 11 years. Devastation! That place was a wake up call. More independence then at my foster home but those kids had it really really bad, 12 year old heroine addicts, abuse... what the entire hell! I hurried up, graduated from high school at 16 and got the hell out of that place. I turned out ok, work in the legal field, live in Las Vegas. I did forgive my foster parents before they died."
The Forgotten One
"My brother and I worked for a farmer one summer, and he paid us with a used car. At the end of the next year, my brother graduated high school, so my parents paid me out for my half of the car, and that was his graduation gift. I gave them all a big discount compared to what it was worth. So like $500 for my share of a $2500 car."
"2 years later, and I needed $50 for some graduation fees, so I borrowed it from my mom until I could get to the bank. (Before mobile banking and ATMs everywhere.) Later, when my mom is telling me they invited all their friends over for a 'graduation' party, I asked if they had gotten a gift for me. "Well I gave you fifty bucks."
"I paid it back the next day, and she didn't blink. The 'graduation party' was just my parents friends, who said congratulations to me, but it wasn't really for me. A few years later, my little sister graduated, she got a car. They bought a used car for her, and our other little sister got the same when she graduated. My parents are mostly nice, and I never felt like they singled me out at birthdays or anything. Just my graduation seemed like I turned invisible."
Office Party Fail
"HR complaint from two subordinates fighting over how to throw me a surprise birthday party."
- BBoySlim
"I've never worked in an office environment, but the stories I've heard of people being required to buy a cake for the whole office and to celebrate their birthday with their coworkers would be enough to keep me in blue collar work for life, were it not for the fact that I love being active and working with my hands and could never sit at a desk all day anyway."
Basics
law school finals GIFGiphy"My Asian mom's gift was "no extra Kumon homework after school homework" so my birthday gift was that I didn't get extra homework from her."
Regifting is trash behavior. Do better. I'd rather you just say I forgot. Or... I just don't care for that much. But regifting? No.
season 4 lint roller GIF by Veep HBOUnlucky 13
"Stomach flu and my first ever period, at the same time. I think it was my 13th birthday."
- kelpself
"Omg, exact same story for me. It was my 13th birthday and my family took us kids to visit our relatives in Subsaharan Africa for the first time. I was sick, jetlagged, overheated and riding down a bumpy road in a Jeep driven by my dad in the complete darkness. We had just eaten at a restaurant where I found a giant scarab beetle in the bottom of my soup bowl. I have flashbacks to this day."
Lazy Thoughts...
"My grandparents have been gifting me (and my brother) the same set of three vice grips for almost 10 years. Collectively we have 60 vice grips. I don't know if they bought a pallet of them, or where they are coming from. GET A GRIP GRANDMA!"
"I had a friend who's father was famous for doing Christmas shopping at the last minute. One year she complained that she went downstairs on Christmas morning and found, sticking out of her stocking, a spatula. Her birthday was a few days after telling that story, so myself and her friends all decided to get together and get her spatulas for her birthday, as a gag gift."
"Well, when it was our birthdays she retaliated. Which lead to a counter-offensive. And soon a new tradition was formed. And guys, I have so many spatulas now. Everything from dollar store cheap plastic, to hand-carved spatulas, a golden spatula, and even a replica of the famous Malaysian fighting spatula."
"I've got seasonal spatulas. As in, today it's time to pack away the Christmas spatulas and bring out the heart-shaped Valentine's day ones, followed by the bunny-shaped Easter ones. We've also been passing around this clip from the Weird Al Yankovic movie UHF. "Spatula City, we sell spatulas, and that's all!"
Their ultimate whack-a-doo move...
"A pair of homemade custom pajamas. Only problem was that they weren't made yet. It was just the fabric and a promise to make them for me. I had to give the fabric back and I never got the pajamas."
"Holy cow my parents do crap like this. It's so freaking weird. Their ultimate whack-a-doo move was to give my wife and I a few acres of their property."
"Nothing legal just at our wedding they gave us a card that basically said 'have some land.' When the dust settled I asked what they thought we would do with it, they said build a home. I said ok, gonna need legal ownership for like building a house. They said sure we will get right on that. Then they decide to sell out and retire and never mentioned our wedding 'gift' again."
Gross...
Disgusted Steve Carell GIFGiphy"My grandma got me a hairbrush with a plastic horse head handle. The horse head was all chipped up and there was hair in the brush."
Bummer...
"My Godfather sent me a Birthday card each year which said, he paid 100 bucks to a bank account which I was supposed to get, when 16yo. He then got into alcohol, used all the money and died."
Oh for God sake, why even bother giving anything at all? Lint rollers, used brushes, homemade pjs... y'all ever hear of a gift card? Just put five bucks on it and call it a day. You can't hide cheap, so stop trying.
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I definitely wouldn't turn down an excursion to AREA 51. I'd like to poke around and get a sense of the place. I've never personally been up close and face to face with a "non-Earther." Not sure I'd like to be...
TV Truth
x files monkey pee GIF by The X-FilesGiphy"UFOs/Aliens are a cover for all of the secret projects that the government is working on. Actually stole that from the X files."
Birth
"How human birth parallels alien abductions:
- Babies are taken from their home (womb)
- They still developing sight, so they see bright lights and grey figures.
- They hear an "alien" language they don't understand.
- They suddenly feel cold after leaving their womb.
- They are in a surgery room being poked with tons of instruments.
Long story short: some people suggest that abductions are just people who had memories of their birth."
In the Mind
"I just don't think anyone will ever see this. But I think that UFO's are the projection of our unconscious collective mind. Everything that exists in reality, also exists, in our immaterial mind. Is it possible that the insides of our mind are also just one drop in the ocean of consciousness... and together we create the material reality were in, simply by experiencing it in a real way, inside-out through our senses."
Flyover...
"My father was an aircraft mechanic and fabricator for test and spy aircraft for the USAF. He spent 75-85 working with test aircraft. He said that when they were going to do a test, that could possibly be seen by the public, they would make a betting pool on how many UFO reports local authorities and flight towers received."
Under the Sea
sci-fi ufo GIFGiphy"I like the idea that some UFOs aren't machines. Instead they are some sort of Upper-Atmosphere Jellyfish. I found the issue of Fortean Times that had this article. Here's the cover: http://ft.gjovaag.com/q/images/a/ae/FT291.jpg"
- BigD1970
Interesting. There are some ideas we can look into. None of it proof, but possibilities. There are certainly plenty of future film ideas.
Like 2012...
"We are like that un contacted tribe and everyone agrees not to bother us."
"I've heard it explained from a channel (idk if you know what channeling is) kinda like this. First of all, we as a species tend to freak out, shoot first and ask questions later. Most humans would have a literal psychotic break. You have to believe in vibrational energy as it relates to our consciousness."
"The aliens (certain ones) are at such a higher level that it would be jarring for us to come in close contact with. We are slowly getting there but it's a process. Like 2012, end of the Mayan calendar, wasn't the end of the world it was the end of an energy cycle that we as the human race had never made it past before."
"Previous civilizations have been destroyed or destroyed themselves before they got this far. We passed a point where we are very unlike to destroy ourselves anymore. This doesn't mean we won't see some real bad hardships yet but we will keep progressing."
- falecf4
"train your eyes"
Dancing GIFGiphy"I was a firm believer in t em when I was in high school and kept googling theories and info in my spare time and during my study halls. They said their bodies were so lightweight or something that the reason why you can't see the evidence is that they disintegrate before hitting the ground."
"And then LOL it was so funny, some people would swear you could "train your eyes" to see rods... HhhahAHAHAHA. Like there were these experts. Video showed him walking around with a serious face, then pointing. And he's like, "that was one just there." "You can't see them, you have to be used to them... like me."
"I've spent many years immersed into hunting them finding them. That's why I can see them." And then one day China, who loves occult stuff, had like a lab that set up a nighttime camera to capture footage of rods at night... then realized they were normal bugs at overexposure. lol"
Lurking
"The Dark Forest theory. Basically the theory that the reason we haven't made contact is because all the other civilized life in the universe/galaxy knows not to broadcast their location. They've learned that there's something awful or predatory lurking in the dark forest of our galaxy, and that it's better if they keep to themselves."
Unknowns...
"That the universe is so vast that we haven't been discovered yet."
- neoastic
"This makes sense to me because traversing the distance to or from even our our stellar neighbors would require technology that is not known to us now or likely to be known by us anytime soon if it's even possible at all. To assume without evidence that aliens could possess this technology and have visited us does not meet my skeptical standards."
- KZED73
Back and Forth
back to the future great scott GIFGiphy"Time travel exists, and UFO sightings are actually future humans coming back to our time. That is why they are so discreet, and never openly make contact."
I hope time travel exists. Now that I'm onboard for. If aliens do exist... just come on out guys. We could probably use your help.
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