Culture

During Japan's 1,200-year meat-eating ban, people devised creative loopholes. They classified rabbits as birds by calling their ears "wings," dubbed wild boar "mountain whale" to pass it off as fish, and claimed ducks were fish because they had webbed feet.

Many European surnames originated from 'son of [father's name].' English -son (Johnson, Jackson), Celtic Mc/Mac (McDonald, MacArthur) and O' (O'Brien), Spanish -ez (Rodríguez, González), and Slavic -vić (Ibrahimović, Đoković) all trace back to a father's name that became hereditary.

In 19th–20th century Germany, university students prized facial scars from Mensur, an academic sword duel. Scars symbolized courage and elite status. Some students too afraid to participate sliced their own cheeks or paid doctors to create fake scars.

The Chinese zodiac animals vary by country. What is a dragon in Korea is a seagull in India, a whale in Iran, and a snail in Central Asia. In Vietnam, the "rabbit" position is held by a cat.

The Navajo people intentionally weave a flaw into their textiles. They believe weavers intertwine part of their soul into the fabric, so they leave an escape route called a "spirit line" (Ch'ihónít'i) to keep the weaver's spirit from being trapped inside.