Just for fun: Unusual cultural habits in England and around the world

Hi Diksha,
I'll try that one:
The Japanese see cats as symbols for good fortune and luck.
And in China people could be offended if you use red ink as it's considered to be a colour used by state officials. Isn't it globally be a well known signal colour which displays and draws attention?
The 15m grace period depends on the socio-cultural environment. That said, if you work in a high pressurized job, people maybe don't gave you extra time, whereas in academical settings it's considered be part of formal etiquette. On the other side, in central Europe, like in Germany people could be easily offended if you run late as punctuality is a German virtue. Here in the UK I tried to show up 15-30m before shift start.
Wiki answered my curiosity with: "Some indigenous tribes from Canada, Denmark, Greenland amd the USA rub their noses as a greeting ceremony",. aybe they have adopted their behaviour from environmental studies, like the sociol interaction between seals, penguins and co.
I was completely stunned about the unique English queue system, which how I learnt quite early has national heritage status. When I came to the UK 6 years ago, I worked on the nightshift for 2 years. One night, after a long shift I went to a store to get my breakfast. Somehow the cashier 'sensed / felt' that I'm not from here and ordered another customer who was behind me to queue jump. I was shocked, because he didn't ask me beforehand amd personally, I think it was rude. On another level, I know that he just tried subconsciously to demonstrate the famous queue system aka micro-management and I demonstrated free-will by leaving my basked next to his checkout area, said thank you so much and left

That's true Linzil. I've also seen foreigners blow their noses out onto the pavements in London too. I'm used to seeing that in the Far East but surprised to see people doing it back home. Thankfully I've only ever seen it being done in China and Hong Kong.

1. I always see a lot of cats t in Greece but not sure if they are lucky or not. On the island of Santorini in the South Aegean sea, Santorini cats are famous and you can find them wandering or lounging around the towns and villages. These are not the dirty street cats that you find in places like Indonesia where I currently live (I've actually adopted three of those street cats when they were young kittens), but in Santorini the cats are beautiful, clean and look well nourished. As for England, I've never heard of cats being lucky, only black cats being unlucky. I've just adopted a black kitten so clearly I believe that nonsense as much as I do about walking under a ladder being unlucky.

2. About red ink, I think in certain Asian countries it is not recommended to write peoples names in red ink. Seems to be something to do with bad luck or impoliteness. I have been known to write a things to do list or a shipping list in red ink.

3. I hate to be late and usually arrive always arrive early, unlike my wife who likes to arrive spot on time or a bit late. Due to her bad habit there have been countless times that we have had to rush through an airport in order not to miss a flight or rush to catch a train at a station. Occasionally we have missed a train or two and have had to find alternative means to get to our destination. For job interviews I have always arrived early and for parties or informal gatherings I tend to arrive on time or slightly late. I don't think a 15 minute grace period is good and I wouldn't be too happy if a staff member turned up late like that due to deadlines etc.

4. I know that Maori's greet each other by rubbing noses in New Zealand. And we always heard that Eskimo's do it too. Not sure if it's done in other countries.

5. I can't think of any. I know that I was brought up to have manners and show respect to women and the elderly but letting them go first and giving up my seat to the elderly and pregnant women or mothers with kids, some I always do. But those are not really unusual. However, in many countries I have visited it seems that customs such as that do not always apply.