Статьи - traditions OUTLOOK

Traditional Japanese kabuki theatre has always been a mystery to the European mentality: only an expert on the culture of the Land of the Rising Sun can understand a play without guide’s tips. The word kabuki is sometimes translated as "the art of singing and dancing". Why not an operetta? The essence of performance is not confined to musical presentation only...

20.11.2021 | Japan, art, traditions

Sacred animals of the Incas

Our "Peruvian cycle" is replenished with the story of the most revered animals in Peru. Being the link between the present and the past, they play an important role in the life of this nation. Wise ancestors of the modern Peruvians, the ancient Incas, were living in harmony with all life that surrounded them.

19.11.2021 | traditions, history, Peru

On the Move. Street food from around the world. Part 2

Do you happen to get hungry? That is great as we go on with our story about the most popular street food from around the world. It’s freshly cooked - fall to, you guys! Let's start with the South Asian countries, namely Singapore - seafood-rich in vitamins and minerals occupy a key place in the diet of residents ...

12.11.2021 | traditions, food, oddities, Israel, China, Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, cuisine of the world, Kenya

On the Move. Street food from around the world

Experienced tourists believe that one of the best sure-fire ways to quickly tune into the beat of another culture is to try local food. In order not to be at a loss when choosing dishes and save precious time for spiritual food, OUTLOOK gives you selective advice on street gastronomy from seven spots of the globe.

02.11.2021 | USA, Germany, traditions, food, Mexico, Peru, Thailand, Morocco, Ghana

Happiness moves in mysterious way: Places to make wishes in Latvia

Trip to Latvia breaks the chain of mundanity, awakes secret fantasies which usually remain dormant in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Wandering between the centuries-old pine trees, fresh Baltic breeze languidly runs over strings in wait for off-beat adventure. Dreams do come true – you just need to know a right place to make a wish.

31.10.2021 | traditions, tourism, Latvia

Road to Asia is paved with carpets

Carpets hang on walls as a symbol of wealth, lay on floors to create coziness and are presented as expensive gifts. Studying fancy pictures in the shapes of diamonds and stars on them attempting to figure out their meaning is a fairly amusing thing to do. Globally spread carpeting traditions were borrowed from eastern peoples who were the first to learn how to make yarn and fabric out of fibrous materials.

24.10.2021 | traditions, Asia, crafts

Women's adornments in India: Sacred meaning

Upon hearing word combination “Hindu woman” an image of a beautiful woman wearing sari and definitely with numerous adornments and pictures on her body emerges in our imagination. Where does passion for body decoration come from in national traditions of this people?

20.10.2021 | traditions, India

Tasty Japan: Give the country a try

Ice cream with a taste of horse meat, pickled insects, fish with deadly venom, etc – Japanese cuisine has things to surprise, amaze and shock you with. And truth be told, enumeration of these dishes doesn’t help my appetite at all. But we are not after exotic stuff. True culinary tourism is an attempt to comprehend mindset and feel national distinctive color through traditional cuisine – not try most exotic dishes.

18.10.2021 | Japan, traditions, culture, world cuisine

Fight like a woman. The fight club of flying cholit

The free fight has not feminine face. The good girl could smile in a pretty way and care colorful dress but not strike out wildly. But in the fierce Ands such gentle flowers do not grow. The true Bolivian cholit will be quick on the uptake, and it is able to fill in if necessary. But on Sunday, having gathered the starched skirts, she will desperately go to fight

08.10.2021 | traditions, Bolivia

Boat instead of shopping basket: Famous floating markets

Stores, shopping malls, markets - all these places are an integral part of daily goings-on of almost every person on our planet. It would seem there is nothing special about them: they are all alike, just goods and prices vary depending on country or city. In fact, it is not quite true since some markets are only accessible via waterways. Our today’s story is about them.

16.09.2021 | traditions, India, culture, Vietnam, Netherlands, Thailand, MYANMAR

Desperate Futurism: Japan. Part 3. “Samurai Spirit”

If what they show in cinematograph is true than a typical samurai appears to be austere, taciturn and even slightly unsociable person. But this image in actual fact doesn’t get in line with reality... You don’t believe it? Our journalist Elena Rasenko suggests you make sure of it for yourself.

20.08.2021 | Japan, traditions, travel, desperate futurism

Desperate Futurism: Japan. Part 2 “Fish Day”

It is just as hard to imagine a Japanese who doesn’t eat fish as to picture a Scott who doesn’t drink whiskey. OUTLOOK journalist Elena Rasenko will tell you about a unique place where successors of samurai purchase fine seafood for their tables.

10.08.2021 | Japan, traditions, travel, desperate futurism

Desperate Futurism: Japan. Part 1

OUTLOOK journalist Elena Rasenko came back from Japan and launches a special series of articles devoted to this country. Warning for very sensitive readers: Beware! After reading, you will get a keen desire to break away, buy a ticket and fly to such a marvelous and fascinating Land of the Rising Sun!

01.08.2021 | Japan, traditions, travel, desperate futurism

Along the waves of time: historic Sailing vessels of Estonia

History of Estonia isn’t preserved in scrolls of parchment but in leaden chronicles of the North Sea. Winding coastline three thousand kilometers long has seen millions of sails starting with striped cloths of drakkars to nap-of-the-earth flight of clippers over the waves in the era of steam and electricity.

17.07.2021 | traditions, Estonia, craft

Bajau: Seafarers of Southeast Asia

Small ethnic groupshave been always interesting for scientists and artists, who sought inspiration in their lifestyle. The Bajau - nomadic seafarers who formally can be correlated with Malaysia, are one of the most popular ethnic groups today.

07.07.2021 | traditions, society, Malaysia

Vivid dance. Polka

In this cheerful and mischievous dance, the all Europe and America are spinning, modestly adding to their word "polka" their geographical location. For example, there are Finnish, Andijon or even Mexican kinds of dance. It is with this choreography that the children begin, they consider it to be the "upper class", which only the hardy dancers with a strong vestibular apparatus can do.

25.06.2021 | traditions

National drinks: Zero degrees and lots of energy

Everyone knows that being in Scotland you should try whiskey, in France you should taste wine, and in Japan t is all about sake. But few people think about national soft drinks. They were created by peoples with far more practical intentions - refreshing and burning, repelling from the climate features, possessing nourishing properties.

21.06.2021 | Japan, traditions, India, Mexico

Ecuador: To be an indian

Our journalist came back from Ecuador with unique experience and we share it with you. For the first time I was suspected of drug trafficking. Alone, in the country where there is no Ukrainian Embassy, I was standing and feverishly figuring out if someone could plant something on me on the way to the airport.

16.06.2021 | traditions, Ecuador

Thailand handcraft: From silk to pearls

Have you ever thought how many grains of history are stored in each item sold at little booths in Thailand? Yet, strolling along those souvenir stalls you are browsing craft records of the whole nation, briefly looking through notes survived from a thousand years ago to the present day. Some pages have thinned to transparency, but marks did preserve their former accuracy.

10.06.2021 | traditions, crafts, Thailand

Twelve guises of South Korea

Only dancing and wearing mask, Korean peasants were able to express their disgust towards rudeness or greed of the hosts or apply to some deity with extraordinary request. Keeping anonymity, the people played out the scenes from life, cried, and laughed. At the end of the performance the destiny awarded the good characters and punished villains.

20.05.2021 | art, traditions, South Korea

Lost island of Yap. The land of big money

How can you understand the nature of finance, if there is no desire to go deep into the jungle of science? It is better to see once, than to read a hundred times: a trip to the island of Yap in Micronesia replaces the entire university course of monetary theory. Yap roads are lined up with giant doughnut-shaped, carved disks the size of a millstone - rampant inflation has made the world biggest money into fun for tourists.

15.05.2021 | traditions, Micronesia

Kazakhstan Jewelry

Famous Kazakh proverb says: “Art of a craftsman can only be told in gold and silver”. Nevertheless, no matter how skillful hands of a creator are, in order to make a truly worthy thing it takes hard work, obstinacy, and, sure enough, courage to make a claim about yourself and about your talent.

13.05.2021 | traditions, Kazakhstan

Tajik сombs of beauty

When Bahriddin’s mother was getting ready for work, she was assiduously arranging her hair around her tubeteika. It resulted in some sort of a crown. On holidays she plaited special adornments into her black hair with a tinge of blue. When she walked, they were tinkling slightly to create an aura of a dance. And in evenings little Bahriddin couldn’t fall asleep without holding her tight braid in his hands.

05.05.2021 | traditions, culture, Tajikistan

Kalash: Amazing people in the mountains of Pakistan

While watching Discovery or other popular science shows it seems that our planet has been explored and examined length and breadth long ago. However some phenomena that we come across in our lives literally knock us down. Like, for instance, the fact that in Hindu Kush Mountains mysterious and blonde Kalash people live in isolation...

03.05.2021 | traditions, Pakistan

Everything on sale: Worlds's best markets and bazaars

In this day and age, it is difficult to surprise anyone, especially an urban resident, with some large department store or market, since nowadays one can buy everything from a humble convenience store next door. However, the iconic bazaars and flea markets are still operating across the globe, they are famous in legends and described with delight.

24.04.2021 | Japan, USA, traditions, Turkey, India, Egypt, culture, Australia, Great Britain

Maculele: dance to make the sparks fly

When the first emigrants from Africa came to Brazil, they brought rousing actions in the country that had been living upon the principle ‘Life is a carnival’. As the citizens of Africa explained, dance maculele appeared in the environment where slaves had to protect themselves from the encroachment of their owners.

16.04.2021 | traditions, Brazil

The way they dance

What is it that characterizes any nation without much words and long explanations? Dances, of course, because it is these movements, refined over centuries, that can tell a foreigner about other peoples much more than thick history books. If you carefully watch and feel the way people dance in different countries, their mind set will become much more comprehensible. And these aren’t mere words.

12.04.2021 | Georgia, Japan, USA, art, traditions, culture, Brazil, Czech Republic, Senegal

Tea empire of the world

Few of us, while our favourite tea is steeping, are scrutinizing about the way this drink went through to get into our mug. Of course, stereotypically, we know that most likely it came from India or China, but in fact origin can vary. In the world there are about 30 countries which are very seriously engaged in tea business, and within this community a very clear hierarchy emerges, headed by the so-called Big Tea Seven.

14.03.2021 | Japan, traditions, India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Kenya

Azerbaijan inside out: Henna Nights

We continue publishing author’s column of Sabina Safarova on traditions of Azerbaijan.We have already learned about the matchmaking and the engagement, and now OUTLOOK proposes to plunge into the traditions of rituals and xinayaxdi – henna nights ceremonies which precedes the wedding itself.

09.03.2021 | traditions, Azerbaijan

Shrimp fishing at Oostduinkerke: Horses for courses

If early morning you walk along sandy beaches of Oostduinkerke, located in one of Belgium western provinces, you can see several suns. One, of course, is in the sky, and others are bright yellow spots riding horses carrying heavy wicker baskets, while plying the shallows along the North Sea coast for shrimps. Oostduinkerke and shrimps are hand and glove, so horseback shrimping is still practiced here.

07.03.2021 | traditions, Belgium

Azerbaijan inside out: Engagement

We continue to publish the stories of Ukrainian women with Azerbaijani blood Sabina Safarova about the amazing culture of Azerbaijan. The girl continues her author's blog and today offers to learn the subtleties of such an interesting tradition as engagement.

02.03.2021 | traditions, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan inside out: Small and big matchmaking

A Ukrainian woman with Azerbaijani blood Sabina Safarova respects her family roots and, being a member of the Union of Azerbaijani Youth in Ukraine, popularizes the culture of her country. Today, the story of a girl about one of the most interesting traditions of Azerbaijan - matchmaking, we are launching her author's blog, which will be filled with cognitive facts and subtleties of manners.

23.02.2021 | traditions, Azerbaijan

Mandala Therapy

Yesterday I created a Universe. I took some peas, rice, buckwheat, millet, black and white pepper seeds and cardamom. Grabbed a handful of coffee and aniseeds. Then it all acquired a centre. It kept growing and calming my thoughts. When the last seed landed in the circle, I felt forgotten harmony again, heard birds singing through the noise of cars on the avenue...

13.02.2021 | art, traditions, culture

Mould your hobby. History of pottery

In a local history museum in every country you visit, you will certainly notice similar archaeological finds - fragments of clay products. Pottery, born millennia ago, but “living” even today, can rightfully be considered one of the most tenacious one. The uniqueness of clay was noticed by our distant ancestors who lived in caves ...

26.01.2021 | art, traditions

Don’t break the tongue: The hardest languages in the world

It is said, the easier it is, the better we feel, however, is it always like that? We know that not all the nations follow this principle. OUTLOOK has found out the strangest, toughest and hard in articulation international languages and would like to share it with the readers.

20.01.2021 | traditions, history, culture

Gastronomic tourism: Through food to culture

You should not condescendingly treat gastrotours as a newfangled invention. Gastronomic tourism is one of the aspects of world science. Her star, American scientist Eric Wolf, who in 2001 founded the International Association of Gastronomic Tourism, states: food is the quintessence of the nation, its mentality, character and, of course, history ...

17.01.2021 | traditions, culture

Eskimo igloo: It is easy as a pie to build castles in ...snow

A little son came to his father and suggested to run away from mom and granny to the North Pole? Now, do not indulge into tragic speeches of severe frosts, pitch darkness of the polar night and hungry polar bears! Give a conspiracy wink to a little brave one, and give him a real man's job for his school winter holidays that is to learn how to build an igloo, night shelter in ever-frost lands.

15.01.2021 | traditions, Finland, Canada

Malanka and Vasyl winter fun: Carnival in Ukrainian style

The New Year in Ukraine did not always start with a Christmas tree, and instead of Santa Claus and Snow Maiden, guests were waiting fora minx girl - Malanka and motor-boy Vasyl accompanied by the retinue. All the follies were out of hand: the ridiculed riddles carried a sacred content, dictated by the logic of the myth of the duel of spring and winter.

13.01.2021 | traditions, Ukraine

Mulled wine: Yummy way to keep warm

Vitamins, development of resistance to cold, correct day regimen... That's all good and useful, especially when the winter weather swirls in, but sometimes we all have to pamper ourselves and at the same time to be protected against germs and colds. And the best way to do it is to sip some mulled wine.

09.01.2021 | traditions

Christmas Eve and What’s to Follow

Christmas arrives with a warm overjacket on its shoulders. At night it brings warm light of the first evening star and in the morning it wakes you up with shine of white but warm sun. If my great-grandmonther’s grandmother had been asked about her Christmas feelings, I believe, her words would have been identical to mine. Because together with a bowl of kutia,...

06.01.2021 | holiday, traditions, Ukraine

VIDEO: Glass from the Holy Town

Hebron is well known for being the city of 3 religions and 3 civilizations, a real place of power. Perhaps that is why by twist of fate there emerged glass which looks fragile, but is centuries old, the same as Hebron.

19.12.2020 | Palestine, traditions

Handicraft: persian carpets

In those days when the Persian soldiers were second to none, and both the Roman Empire and the Arabian Peninsula were conquered by their power, skilful fingers of winner nation craftswomen created their first masterpiece. The carpet called The Springtime passed into history as the most precious of all time. It symbolized powerful rule of the Persians, and its beauty told about the divine origin of the king Khosrow I.

16.11.2020 | art, traditions, Iran

Mehndi – instead of a thousand tattoos

Every other person has considered having a tattoo, maybe not permanent but at least a temporary one. Absolutely painless application of drawings that can be altered in a couple of weeks is offered by Mehndi art – henna painting.

12.11.2020 | art, traditions, India

Yodel - Music of the Austrian mountains

Austrian tour operators launched an unusual touristic tourdesigned for fans of singing style called yodel. Hikers wander through the Ziller Valley, a broad trail narrows opening the way for only the most avid travellers, then track leads upwards. Tourists look into the interactive station shaped as a giantsonorous walk-in cowbell, then they go around thelargest alpine horn and head to place...

28.10.2020 | music, traditions, culture, Austria

Blood. Money. Feather

This entertainment is strictly forbidden in almost all countries of the world. But lovers of cockfights do not stop. Partly illegal competitions always gather full halls or courtyards, depending on the fact where the deadly bird fights are. Spectators literally savor the way the birds tear each other to shreds, without showing pity for themselves and their rivals.

12.10.2020 | traditions, culture

White gold of Tianxia. Chinese porcelain

The civilization of ancient China was one of the first to discover porcelain. It is established that back in II millennium BC the firing temperature of pottery found in the Yellow River was close to 1200 ° C. According to some researchers, the invention of porcelain was dictated by the desire to find a replacement for greenstone and jade.

02.10.2020 | art, traditions, China

Your breakfast, Sir! How people start their day around the world

A mini toast, a slice of cheese and a sip of strong coffee. "That is not a buffet!" a waiter will pronounce indignantly, looking at the disgruntled tourist’s face. The generous Ukrainian soul cannot understand how locals manage to eat their full with that. Therefore, before going to a new country, you need to know exactly whether in the evening you should prepare a couple of sandwiches to indulge them in the morning,...

09.08.2020 | traditions, oddities

"Goat-dragging"

“To drag a goat with one’s hands” is a national entertainment of Tajik men however it enjoys huge popularity around Central Asia in the whole. As a rule a couple dozens, sometimes as many as a hundred, skilled and nimble horse riders gather to drag the goat. There is such a throng during the event that people fall off their horses, lose consciousness and even get maimed.

26.07.2020 | traditions, sports, culture, Asia

Wedding traditions of the world: from geese to lasso

Stealing the bride's shoe in the midst of the celebration, and to require unimaginable redemption from the groom, is an interesting action for which it is worth to go to the wedding party. This is not the only wedding tradition of country, by which the legal wedlock of two hearts acquires a special flavour. What are interesting rituals of different parts of our planet?

09.07.2020 | traditions, Mexico, Finland, Croatia, Malaysia, South Korea, Fiji, Kenya, Bermuda, Sahara

Mechoui: Heavy Treat

Destiny often hatches surprises and you can never know for sure what you’ll try at a festive table especially when travelling around Middle East countries.

25.06.2020 | traditions, world cuisine