A summary of the cultural traditions and customs of each state in the United States

The United States is a vast land with 50 states. Due to different regions, each state will have its own unique cultural traditions and strange customs. Below, 86 will take a look at the more famous ones. 1. Bible Belt: refers to the southeastern and south-central states of the United States, including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, States with a high proportion of black people, such as South Carolina and North Carolina. Since there are a large number of evangelical Protestants in the area, the folk customs are very conservative and they are very fanatical about religion. The Bible must be used as the basic rule in daily conduct. The proportion of people going to church (church attendance) is much higher than that in other parts of the United States. In the American TV series TBBT (The Big Bang Theory), Sheldon is often teased about his hometown and his mother's living habits because he comes from the conservative south of Texas.

2. Every year on March 17th, the Irish holiday St. Patrick's Day, the Chicago River in Chicago will be dyed green, and a parade will be held on Fifth Avenue in New York. People all over the country will also wear at least one piece of green clothes, pants, shoes, bags and even hats = =. St. Patrick's Day is an official Christian religious holiday commemorating Ireland's patron saint, Saint Patrick, and is now Ireland's national holiday. Since green is the color of the Irish flag, every year on this day, the Irish and people of Irish descent around the world wear green to celebrate this holiday. St. Patrick's Day is mainly popular in the northern states of the United States, because the southern states have a high proportion of African-Americans and relatively few people of Irish descent.

3. When Americans refer to soft drinks (soft drinks, non-alcoholic beverages), people in different regions use different words. As shown in the picture below, people in New England and the West Coast (and a small amount of central areas) covered in bright green use "Soda" (soda carbonated water) to refer to soft drinks, while the vast Midwest covered in black People in China use "Pop" (soda), while people in the green south use "Coke" (Coke).

4. The culture of the West Coast region of the United States, represented by the Silicon Valley, Bay Area, is focused on technology and start-up (technology and entrepreneurship), while the culture of the East Coast region of the United States, represented by New York, Culture focuses on fashion, arts/entertainment, media (fashion, arts/entertainment, media). People on the West Coast are keen to talk about sports, health, outdoor sports and other physical feats, while people on the East Coast are more interested in indoor sports and beauty.

In addition, there is also the 8/6 Phenomenon? (8/6 phenomenon), which means that a woman who can be rated as 8 points in the Silicon Valley Bay Area can only be rated as 6 points in New York. = = (Because the Bay Area is dominated by men, while in New York there are more women than men).

5. When talking about California, which has free folk customs and very high racial diversity, we have to mention California’s annoying traffic = =. Except for the Bay Area in Northern California, which has a bus and transportation BART system (similar to the subway, connecting major cities in the Bay Area such as San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, and Sacramento), the rest of California can basically be said to be There is no bus transportation. In many areas of the United States, the leftmost lane of highways is designated as a carpool, which is a dedicated lane for cars with more than two people on board. Route 405 in the Southern California city of Los Angeles is known as the largest parking lot in North America (see the picture below), which shows the popularity and ownership of cars in California.

6. In the United States, whether to take off your shoes when entering the house also varies depending on the regional culture. In most southern states and the District of Columbia, you do not need to take off your shoes when entering a house. In most northern states, you must take off your shoes before entering. Generally speaking, if 1) the shoes are wet or dirty, 2) the indoor carpet or floor is relatively expensive, you must take off your shoes when entering the house.

7. People from Hawaii generally have more tattoos on their bodies than most people living in the mainland United States. There are three main reasons for this phenomenon:

(1) The influence of religious conservatism on the Hawaiian islands is very small, and the folk customs are relatively free and open.

(2) Due to the high immigration rate of Hawaii Island, the fusion of Polynesian culture (Polynesian culture), East Asian culture and Western tradition has provided a richer and more diverse pattern selection and development for the tattoo culture in Hawaii. direction.

(3) The presence of the military also promotes the prosperity of tattoo culture in Hawaii.

Generally speaking, the more open the people are and the areas with a high proportion of ethnic minority populations (such as California and Oregon on the west coast and Florida, Texas and Nevada in the south), Tattoo culture becomes more and more popular.

8. Chinese people use different words when speaking Mandarin (for example, the word "woxin" is a complimentary word among southerners, indicating warmth and peace of mind; while in the eyes of northerners, it is a derogatory word, Expressing discomfort and distress), Americans also speak English differently.

The following is one of the typical examples of the names of crayfish caught in lakes and streams:

Due to this difference in wording, in France The famous dish Crawfish ?touff?e (a stew of shellfish and shellfish as the main dish, supplemented with rice and other sauces) is very popular in South Louisiana (especially New Orleans) where descendants mainly live. (The most famous one is called "Louisiana Braised Crayfish"). If you tell this name to an American who was born and raised in the Great Lakes region of the north, he may think you are talking about a bad thing. And the wig.

9. In the United States, the general way to travel is by plane, bus or driving (roadtrip). Very few people choose to take the train. Today's American railways are rarely used for passenger transportation. Quite a few areas do not even have railways or train stations. Even in areas with railway operations, the cost of taking trains is often higher than taking buses and planes. Relatively speaking, the rail transportation on the east coast is more developed. Of course, it is not comparable to that in China = =, but it is much better than the central and west coasts where public transportation is almost zero. In California, where cars are highly popular, there is an interesting saying: In order to encourage residents to take trains, the government allows residents to buy a train car, then put it in their own yard, and graffiti it into whatever pattern they like = =If you want to take the train yourself If you have a train at home, just contact the government, and then the relevant departments will bring the locomotive to pull your car onto the track, and then you can take a rough ride on your own train with only one car!

10. Although everyone generally assumes that the official language of the United States is English, in fact, federal law (Federal level) does not clearly stipulate the official language of the United States; only 28 states have legislation at the state legal level that stipulates that English is the de facto official language (de facto official language). In addition, Spanish also has the status of an official language in New Mexico and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico (because New Mexico is adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border and has a large number of Mexican immigrants).

Cincinnati

People in Cincinnati eat a lot of chili, but what is different from other places is that the chili made there is cooked for a long time with minced meat and many herbs and ingredients. It is said that this is a practice passed down by Greek immigrants back then. When people talk about chili in Cincinnati, they are actually referring to the gravy cooked with minced meat, not chili chili.

There are two famous chili restaurants in the Cincinnati area, one is called Gold Star Chili, whose slogan is The Flavor of Cincinnati, and the other is called Skyline. The food sold in the two restaurants is almost the same without any difference. They are all hot dogs, pasta, etc., plus chili. Although the two brands sell exactly the same things, because of the differences in chili, each has its own fans, so they have developed independently for half a century. However, it seems that chili cooked this way is much more popular in the Cincinnati area than in other areas, and neither company has any intention of expanding.

Kentucky

Needless to say fried chicken, the people of Kentucky also eat a food that sounds a bit disgusting, and that is squirrel brains.

What’s more embarrassing is that squirrels are often eaten by locals, and squirrel brains are even used as a delicacy to entertain guests. If you are lucky enough to be a guest at someone's home in Kentucky one day, and they serve you a beautifully made squirrel brain pie, don't be scared to death. It is a high-class treatment for your guests. There is also a saying that eating squirrel brains can bring good luck, so some people let children eat some before exams.

Common methods include smashing squirrel brains and egg meat into a stew called burgoo, and serving it as a salty cake or pizza topping.

I have never eaten it, and I probably don’t dare to eat it. I only saw someone writing that it tastes like mushrooms. . .