Cultural Differences Mapped
New Year’s Day Worldwide
On January 1st, about 90 percent of the global population will observe a public holiday to celebrate New Year’s Day.
How Cultures Eat
While in any regular eatery in the Western world, you are most likely to find a spoon, fork, and knife, most Asian nations east of India and south of China use chopsticks (mainly in China, Vietnam, and Korea). The major exception is Thailand.
But today, with globalization, East Asian cuisine is available in almost every large city, and chopsticks are used in every country today.
Across many cultures in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, eating with one’s hands is everyday practice. There is, of course, ceremonial cleanliness that attends the act of eating with one’s hands.
Ring finger preference
Couples wear wedding rings on their left hands in many Western countries, such as the Americas, and countries of western Europe. In Asian nations, people also tend to wear the ring on the left hand.
In many Northern and Eastern European nations, including Germany, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Poland, Greece, and Bulgaria, it is more expected to wear the wedding ring on the right hand.
In the Netherlands, protestants wear their wedding ring on their right hand, while Catholics wear it on their left.
The map below shows ring finger preference in Europe.
