MEXICO

Officially the United Mexican States  is a federal republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico.

Indigenous people

The number of indigenous Mexicans is judged using the political criteria found in the 2nd article of the Mexican constitution. The Mexican census does not report racial-ethnicity but only the cultural-ethnicity of indigenous communities that preserve their indigenous languages, traditions, beliefs, and cultures. The absolute indigenous population is growing, but at a slower rate than the rest of the population so that the percentage of indigenous peoples is nonetheless falling.

language

The country has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world with almost a third of all Spanish native speakers.

Mexico is home to a large number of indigenous languages, spoken by some 5.4% of the population – 1.2% of the population are monolingual speakers of an indigenous language. The indigenous languages with most speakers are Nahuatl, spoken by approximately 1.45 million people, Yukatek Maya spoken by some 750,000 people and the Mixtec   and Zapotec languages each spoken by more than 400,000 people.

The National Institute of Indigenous Languages INALI recognizes 68 linguistic groups and some 364 different specific varieties of indigenous languages. Since the promulgation of the Law of Indigenous Linguistic Rights in 2003, these languages have had status as national languages, with equal validity with Spanish in all the areas and contexts in which they are spoken.

religion

The 2010 census by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (National Institute of Statistics and Geography) gave Roman Catholicism as the main religion, with 83% of the population, while 10% (10,924,103) belong to other Christian denominations, including Evangelicals (5%); Pentecostals (1.6%); other Protestant or Reformed (0.7%); Jehovah's Witnesses (1.4%); Seventh-day Adventists (0.6%); and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (0.3%). 172,891 (or less than 0.2% of the total) belonged to other, non-Christian religions; 4.7% declared having no religion; 2.7% were unspecified

Food

Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices. Most of today's Mexican food is based on pre-Columbian traditions, including Aztec and Maya, combined with culinary trends introduced by Spanish colonists.

The conquistadores eventually combined their imported diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the native pre-Columbian food, including maize, tomato, vanilla, avocado, guava, papaya, pineapple, chili pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut, and turkey.

Mexican food varies by region, because of local climate and geography and ethnic differences among the indigenous inhabitants and because these different populations were influenced by the Spaniards in varying degrees. The north of Mexico is known for its beef, goat and ostrich production and meat dishes, in particular the well-known Arrachera cut.

Kerala

Kerala, often referred to as Keralam, is a state in the south-west region of India on the Malabar coast. It was formed on 1 November 1956 as per the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam-speaking regions.  Malayalam is the most widely spoken and official language of the state. The Chera Dynasty was the first powerful kingdom based in Kerala, though it frequently struggled against attacks from the neighbouring Cholas and Pandyas. During the Chera period, Kerala remained an international spice trading center. Later, in the 15th century, the lucrative spice trade attracted Portuguese traders to Kerala, and eventually paved the way for the European colonisation of India. After independence ,Travancore and Cochin joined the Republic of India and Travancore-Cochin was given the status of a state. Later, the state was formed in 1956 by merging the Malabar district, Travancore-Cochin (excluding four southern  taluks ), and the taluk of Kasargod,South Kanara.

Kerala is the state with the lowest positive population growth rate in India (3.44%) and has a density of 860 people per km².

 

Climate

Southwest Monsoon Clouds over Alappuzha

With around 120–140 rainy days per year, Kerala has a wet and maritime tropical climate influenced by the seasonal heavy rains of thesouthwest summer monsoon and northeast winter monsoon. Around 65% of the rainfall occurs from June to August corresponding to the southwest monsoon, and the rest from September to December corresponding to northeast monsoon. Southwest monsoon; The moisture-laden winds, on reaching the southernmost point of the Indian Peninsula, because of its topography, become divided into two parts: the "Arabian Sea Branch" and the "Bay of Bengal Branch". The "Arabian Sea Branch" of the Southwest Monsoon first hits the Western Ghats in Kerala, thus making the area the first state in India to receive rain from the Southwest Monsoon.

 

Australia

Australian culture is founded on stories of battlers, bushrangers and brave soldiers. Of sporting heroes, working heroes and plucky migrants. It’s all about a fair go, the great outdoors and a healthy helping of irony. Today Australia also defines itself by its Aboriginal heritage, vibrant mix of cultures, innovative ideas and a thriving arts scene. Aboriginal culture: a rich and timeless tradition The Dreamtime is the sacred ‘time before time’ of the world’s creation. According to Aboriginal belief, totemic spirit ancestors emerged from the earth and descended from the sky to awaken a dark and silent world. They created the sun, moon and stars, forged mountains, rivers, trees and waterholes and changed into human and animal forms. Spirit ancestors connect this ancient past with the present and future through every aspect of Aboriginal culture. Rock art, craft and bark painting reveal Dreamtime stories, mark territory and record history, while songs tell of Dreamtime journeys, verbally mapping water sources and other essential landmarks. Their special lyrics have been passed down virtually unchanged for at least 50,000 years, and are often accompanied by clapsticks or the deep throb of the didgeridoo. Similarly, traditional dances reveal creation myths, enact the deeds of Dreamtime heroes and even recent historical events. Colonial myths: battlers, bushrangers and brave soldiers Australians believe in mateship and a ‘fair go’ and have a strong affection for the underdog or ‘battler’. These values stem from convicts and early colonialists who struggled against a harsh and unfamiliar land and often unjust authority. Australia’s most famous bushranger Ned Kelly protested against the poverty and injustice of a British class system shipped here along with the convicts. This flawed hero’s fight for 'justice and liberty' and 'innocent people' has been embraced as part of the national culture and inspired countless books and movies. On the goldfields of the mid-1850s, diggers were portrayed in stories and songs as romantic heroes, larrikins and villains who embraced democracy. The bloody 1854 Eureka Stockade, where Victorian miners rose up against an authoritarian licensing system, came to symbolise a triumph of social equality. Later, during World War I, the courageous ANZAC soldiers who served in Gallipoli gave new meaning to the term ‘tough Aussie’. Australian English: speaking ‘Strine’ Australians have a unique colloquial language, coined ‘strine’ by linguist Alastair Morrison (imagine saying Australian with your teeth gritted to keep out the flies) in 1966. This combines many long lost cockney and Irish sayings of the early convicts with words from Aboriginal languages. We often abbreviate words and then add an ‘o’ or ‘ie’ on the end as in ‘bring your cossie to the barbie this arvo’. We also like reverse nicknames, calling people with red hair ‘bluey’, saying ‘snowy’ to someone with dark hair, and tagging ‘lofty’ to someone who is small in stature. We tend to flatten our vowels and end sentences with a slightly upward inflection. Sporting heroes: the glory of green and gold It's no secret that Australians are sports mad. With more than 120 national and thousands of local, regional and state sporting organisations, it's estimated that six-and-a-half million people in Australia are registered sport participants. Not bad from a population of just over 21 million! The number one watched sport in Australia is Australian Rules Football (AFL) with its high kicks and balletic leaps, while the brute force and tackling tactics of National Rugby League (NRL) reign supreme in New South Wales and Queensland. Australia’s national Rugby Union team, the Wallabies play on the international circuit and in the Bledisloe Cup, part of a Tri Nations tournament with South Africa. Australia is a nation of swimmers and Olympic medals attest to our performance in the pool. All summer we watch the Australian cricket team in their whites and in January, we flick channels to see the tennis Australian Open. Held in Melbourne, this attracts more people to Australia than any other sporting event. Football is a growth sport, we draw world-class surfers for the Bells Beach Surf Classic and on Boxing Day crowds gather to watch the boats sail out of Sydney Harbour for the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. On the first Tuesday in November, the nation stops for the famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup while and in March rev heads converge in Melbourne for the Formula One Grand Prix. The list of sports we love goes on, and if in doubt about the rules just ask a passionate punter. An outdoor lifestyle: beach and barbeques With more than 80 per cent of Australians living within 50 kilometres of the coast, the beach has become an integral part of our famous laid-back lifestyle. From Saturday morning surf-club training for young ‘nippers’ to a game of beach cricket after a barbeque, we love life on our sandy shores. We jostle for a spot on packed city beaches, relax at popular holiday spots and drive to secret, secluded beaches in coastal national parks. We go to the beach to enjoy the sun and surf or to sail, parasail, fish, snorkel, scuba dive and beach comb. It’s where we socialise and play sport, relax and enjoy romance. It’s also the site for celebration. On New Year’s Eve, revellers dance in the sand and watch fireworks at Manly and Bondi beaches in Sydney and Glenelg in Adelaide. Many beaches host citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day and on Christmas Day up to 40,000 international visitors converge on Bondi Beach wearing Santa hats and swimming costumes. Australia’s most famous beaches - Bondi and Manly in Sydney, St Kilda in Melbourne, Surfers Paradise on the Queensland Gold Coast, Cottesloe in Perth and Glenelg in Adelaide – attract locals as well as international tourists. Multiculturalism: diverse food, festivals and faith Since 1945 more than six million people from across the world have come to Australia to live. Today, more than 20 per cent of Australians are foreign born and more than 40 per cent are of mixed cultural origin. In our homes we speak 226 languages - after English, the most popular are Italian, Greek, Cantonese and Arabic. Our rich cultural diversity is reflected in our food, which embraces most of the world’s cuisines and artfully fuses quite a few of them. You’ll find European flavours, the tantalising spices of Asia, Africa and the Middle East and bush tucker from our backyard on offer everywhere from street stalls to five star restaurants. Tuck into Thai takeaway, dine out on perfect Italian pasta, do tapas in our city’s Spanish strips and feast on dumplings in Chinatown. You can also embrace our melting pot of cultures in the many colourful festivals. See samba and capoeira at Bondi’s Brazilian South American festival, dance behind the dragon parade during Chinese New Year or stroll through streets transformed into a lively piazza during the annual Italian celebrations. As a nation, we embrace a rainbow of religious belief and you’ll find Catholic and Anglican churches, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist temples, mosques and synagogues lining our streets. Australian innovations: from the Hills Hoist to Penicillin Australia’s unique geography and relative isolation has made it a fertile ground for new ideas. In 1879, Australians developed a way for ice to be manufactured artificially, allowing us to export meat to Great Britain on refrigerated ships. In 1906, the surf lifesaving reel was designed so lifesavers could reach distressed swimmers with a rope attached to their vests. In 1929, Alfred Traeger built a pedal-powered radio as the communications for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Australians were also responsible for more everyday inventions such as notepads (1902), aspirin (1915), the pacemaker (1926), penicillin (1940) the Hills Hoist clothesline (1946), the plastic disposable syringe (1949), the wine cask (1965), the bionic ear (1978), dual-flush toilet flush (1980), anti-counterfeiting technology for banknotes (1992) and long-wearing contact lenses (1999). Long before European colonisation, the Aboriginal people were already leading the world. They invented the aerodynamic boomerang and a type of spear thrower called the woomera. They were also the first society to use ground edges on stone cutting tools and the first to use stone tools to grind seeds, everyday tools which were developed only much later by other societies. Culture cravings: theatre, film, books and visual art From theatre to literature, Australians have a quiet love affair with the arts. We flock to the movies and our attendance at galleries and performing arts is almost double that for all football codes. Our cities play host to a huge array of cutting-edge cultural festivals, and offer music, theatre and dance performances and art exhibitions every day of the week. See traditional Aboriginal dance performance by the Bangarra Dance Theatre, throw yourself into the WOMADelaide international music festival in Adelaide and soak up theatre, ballet, opera and painting in Brisbane’s huge cultural centre on South Bank. In smaller towns you can catch performances by local musicians and see hand-made art and craft.n

INDIA

Indian culture and life style is always a subject of curiosity for the west. India, the country of Ten thousand years culture, the land of sharp contrasts and the perfect example of unity among vivid diversity believes in simple living and high thinking. Though Hindu dominated country, peaceful co-existence of people belonging to all religions of the world here is one of the greatest aspects of the Indian culture. Constitutionally, India is a secular country and every Indian enjoys equal rights irrespective of his/her religion, caste, sex and political opinion. When you minutely analyze the Indian life style and culture we find several other unique and interesting aspects of Indian culture.

They are described below.

Irrespective of caste creed and religion, marriage is a must and the most auspicious social ceremony of every Indian family. And the interesting fact is that more than 70% of the marriages are arranged one even today. It means, the parents of the boy or girl take the decision about his/her marriage. However, there are few exceptions to this too. Indian family life is an extended and inclusive one. The concept of joint family and offspring taking complete care of the parents during old age is a common aspect of Indian lifestyle.

Clothing of Indians varies from state to state according to the Local Culture. The very word pajama has its root in India. Indians still believe in simple draped clothing. For men, the common dressing in North India is Kurtta and pajama. In south India, men wear Mundu (white wraparound clothing) and angavastram (shawl). Though sari is the most common apparel for Indian women in some parts like Punjab and Haryana, salwar-kameez is more popular.

Taking foot wears off is a common practice when some enters into temple or house. While accepting something, using only the right hand is another interesting custom related to Indian culture. Greeting guests with folded hands is another unique aspect of great Indian culture as Indians treat their guests as their God.

                                 

                                        

These 19 Nightmarish Places Will Keep You Awake At Night... They Sent Chills Down My Spine.

  

As you go about your daily life, it's easy to forget all of the weird and wonderful things that are tucked away around the world. A Redditor cobbled together 19 of the strangest places on earth, reminding us all of the creepy things that could be hidden in our very towns. Dark forests, abandoned cities, strange museums and other oddities are everywhere. You just need to know how to find them.

1.) Hoia Baciu Forest (Romania): This forest is known as the “Bermuda Triangle” of Romania. Multiple people have gone missing in it, people have sighted UFOs, there has been unexplained electrical phenomena and more.

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2.) The Catacombs (Paris): The Parisian catacombs are a giant ossuary and cemetary that are located beneath that city’s streets. There are approximately 6 million bodies put to rest in the catacombs. There is a city of the dead waiting to be explored beneath the city of lights.

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3.) The Mütter Museum (Pennsylvania): The Mütter Museum is an institution dedicated to medical anomalies. It houses organs, bones, fetuses and statues that’ll leave you with chills. Its medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment are world-famous.

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4.) Varosha (Cyprus): Varosha is a completely uninhabited resort city on Cyprus’ coast. After the Turkish invasion, Varosha was quickly evacuated. Today, Varosha stands frozen displaying exactly how life was in 1974. From a distance it looks like a bustling resort town, but it is completely dead.

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5.) Oradour-sur-Glane (France): This is a small French village that was decimated by the Nazis in WWII. The entire city was burned and almost every inhabitant was executed. The remnants of the village still stand today.

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6.) The Door to Hell (Turkmenistan): This was once a gas field, but the Soviets set it on fire. Now, it has been burning for over 40 years. It seems that the dangerous pit of fire will never stop burning.

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7.) Maunsell Sea Forts (North Sea, England): These were designed to protect England from a potential Nazi invasion during WWII. Today, they stand empty, ghosts guarding the coast (except for the occasional sea bird or vandals).

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8.) Leap Castle (Ireland): The Leap Castle is reportedly one of the most haunted castles in the world. Its rumored that the hallways are patrolled by “the Elemental,” an unseen force. The castle is allegedly haunted because it hosted historic slaughters and was even built on top of a torture pit.

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9.) San Zhi Resort (Taiwan): This resort was built to be a tranquil place, but because of the strange amount of deaths during the construction, it was abandoned. Now, the “pod” resort stands empty and supposedly haunted.

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10.) Wonderland (China): Wonderland was supposed to be China’s version of Disneyland, but much bigger. There were construction problems with the project, leading it to be abandoned. The remains of the theme park are still in the middle of an empty field, open to adventurers.

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11.) Jacob’s Well (Texas): This natural spring is over 100 feet deep. Many locals jump into the well for recreation, even though there are sharp rocks jutting out from all sides. Scuba divers explore the depths of this well, but with caution. Over the years, novice divers have perished in the well.

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12.) Kryziu Kalnas “Hill Of Crosses” (Lithuania): Kryziu Kalnas was originally a ceremonial site where Lithuanians would mourn the dead lost at war. The Soviet Union bulldozed the area twice, but locals rebuilt it to be even bigger. Today, over 100,000 crosses stand on the hill.

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13.) Kabayan Mummy Caves (Philippines): The Kabayan Mummy Burial Caves are manmade caves full of preserved mummies, isolated from most of the world. These mummies are some of the best preserved in the world.

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14.) Muynak (Uzbekistan): Muynak was once a busy port city on the Aral Sea. The Soviet Union drained the Aral Sea for irrigation purposes, destroying Muynak and leaving the remants of a busy port sit in a desert wasteland.

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15.) Centralia (Pennsylvania): This was one a busy mining town, until the coal veins under the city caught fire. This dangerous fire has been burning since 1962. The town was bandoned, except for approximately 10 people who still live there. The creepy town was the visual inspiration for the horror movie Silent Hill.

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16.) Island of the Dolls (Mexico): This place is an uninhabited island in Xochimilco, Mexico. According to legend, a girl died in the canals surrounding the island, after which dolls began to wash ashore constantly. The island’s only inhabitant and caretaker then began to hang the dolls that would wash ashore in memory of the little girl.

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17.) Cincinnati’s Abandoned Subway (Ohio): There were plans to build a subway system in Cincinnati in the early 1900s. The city ran out of funding, but the tunnels that were constructed are still open beneath the city, a maze that is left to be explored.

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18.) Jatinga (India): Jatinga is a relatively normal town, but it’s plagued by massive bird “suicides” that happen every September - October. The en masse bird deaths occur at the end of the monsoon months, when on dark, foggy nights the bird populations are attracted to the lights of villages and are then killed by the villagers. In modern times, conservation groups have made an effort to decrease the amount of bird deaths during this season.

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19.) Akodessewa Fetish Market (Togo): Over half of the population of Togo practices indigenous beliefs, requiring religious paraphernalia you would not find in any normal market. Shrunken heads, skulls, flesh and more can be found in a fetish market like this.

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Some of the strangest places on earth aren't legitimately haunted, instead they are haunted by the memories of the horrors that were once committed there. The absence of life and positivity in a place that is just an archaic link to the past can be more chilling than any ghost story.
Source: Reddit Share these strange places with others... spread the chills that go down your spine.

China

China

02DEC2014

Since ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and conservative philosophies. For much of the country’s dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations, which have their origins in the Han Dynasty. The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, such as the belief that calligraphy, poetry and painting were higher forms of art than dancing or drama. Chinese culture has long emphasized a sense of deep history and a largely inward-looking national perspective.Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today.

The first leaders of the People’s Republic of China were born into the traditional imperial order, but were influenced by the May Fourth Movement and reformist ideals. They sought to change some traditional aspects of Chinese culture, such as rural land tenure, sexism, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state. Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party’s rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as “regressive and harmful” or “vestiges of feudalism”. Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera, were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted; only 34 foreign films a year are allowed to be shown in Chinese cinemas.

Today, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival, and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide. China is now the third-most-visited country in the world, with 55.7 million inbound international visitors in 2010. It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone.Chinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety. The emperors of traditional China were known to have many dining chambers in their palaces, with each chamber divided into several departments, each responsible for a specific type of dish.China’s staple food is rice in the south, wheat based breads and noodles in the north. Although the diet of the common people in pre-modern times was largely grain and simple vegetables, with meat reserved for special occasions, pork is now the most popular meat, accounting for about three-fourths of the country’s total meat consumption.Southern cuisine, due to the area’s proximity to the ocean and milder climate, has a wide variety of fish and vegetables; it differs in many respects from the wheat-based diets across dry northern China. Numerous offshoots of Chinese food, such as Hong Kong cuisine and American Chinese food, have emerged in the nations that play host to the Chinese diaspora.

China has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world. There is evidence that archery (Shèjiàn) was practised during the Western Zhou Dynasty. Swordplay (Jiànshù) and a form of association football (Cùjū) date back to China’s early dynasties as well.Today, some of the most popular sports in the country include martial arts, basketball, football, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker. Board games such as go (known as weiqi in China), xiangqi, and more recently chess, are also played at a professional level.

Physical fitness is widely emphasized in Chinese culture, with morning exercises such as qigong and t’ai chi ch’uan widel

y practised, and commercial gyms and fitness clubs gaining popularity in the country. Young people in China are also enjoy soccer and basketball, especially in urban centres with limited space and grass areas. The American National Basketball Association has a huge following among the Chinese youth, with ethnic or native Chinese players such as Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin held in high esteem. In addition, China is home to a huge number of cyclists, with an estimated 470 million bicycles as of 2012. Many more traditional sports, such as dragon boat racing, Mongolian-style wrestling and horse racing are also popular.China has participated in the Olympic Games since 1932, although it has only participated as the PRC since 1952. China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where its athletes received 51 gold medals – the highest number of gold medals of any participating nation that year. China also won the most medals of any nation at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, with 231 overall, including 95 gold medals. In 2011, Shenzhen in Guandgong, China hosted the 2011 Summer Universiade. China hosted the 2013 East Asian Games in Tianjin and the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing.