I lived for a while in Cairo, Egypt and in the fall they also have “burn season”. Except they burn garbage. Not grass. The smoke always burned your throat those few months and it was really bad to breathe the polluted air.

Also in Saudi Arabia, we had to plan our outings around Prayer Time. We had to make sure we were in the grocery store or restuarant before prayer. During prayer everything closes down for half an hour and the doors are locked and the lights are turned off so that the employees can bring out their prayer mats and pray. The prayer was played over the loudspeakers in the mall or in the area so that everyone could hear it. We would just continue to shop quietly, or be angry because we hadn’t had a chance to order. Another thing that may have been strange was the fact that the restaurants were separated into Men’s and Family Sections so that single men would not be in the same place where women (possibly not wearing their Abiyyas) would be eating. These customs were a normal part of my childhood, but now that I think about it, those were really different experiences.

@global_nomad Wow! That would be a shocker!

Hmmm. You asked: ”...traditions in your state (or community or country) that you were raised with and are perfectly normal for you…then you realize how strange it might be to outsiders?”

So many. How about eating three meals together in a communal dininghall or everyone’s laundry is done together, and clothes picked out from the neat piles, not necessarily your clothes, justy clothes. Shall I continue?

Putting stuff in the dryer is actually pretty strange. Most people hang clothes to dry. But then again, hanging clothes to dry is strange to some.

easter traditions here… i didn’t realize that those look more like a kkk rally than any other thing….