Tuesdays
My Ex-girlfriend used to have the tradition of B.J. Tuesdays. Every lunchtime when we popped home, the day lived up to its namesake.
Pity really, it was the only thing that worked in our relationship. nice that she kepped it up untill the end though.
(gristy Twice as a rabbit, but oh, how a reputation sticks, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 8:24, Reply)

"I see IKEA"
The first in our family to shout this, on seeing said store, is entitled to claim an ice-cream from the others present.

You can claim two ice-creams if you see a foreign one (for us, one not in the UK).

For those who want to start, a great two-pointer is the IKEA store visible whilst landing at Newark Airport, NJ - its even better because the phone call to tell your loved one will inevitably be in the middle of the night UK time.
( TheCockwellInn, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 8:09, Reply)

Me, my best friend, and both our girlfriends all play this one
whenever the four of us are out, on sighting a yellow vehicle you must attack whoever is nearest to you, either by prodding them in the arm or spanking them. On sighting a red vehicle or hearing a siren, it is essential that you stop what you are doing and kiss someone, usually your partner.

There has never been any reason, or adequate explination for this behaviour, but we all agree it is a good idea.

This has gone on for months now, and results in strange looks from passers-by, but I sure as hell don't complain when I get a spank and a kiss in the middle of the street!
( --=| Daz |=-- has been masturbating over a picture of you since, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 8:05, Reply)

glass eyes and pumpkin soup
-My family has big Halloween celebrations. Every year we gather at my cousins' house and we eat pumpkin soup and stuff. During dinner my great great uncle John used to take out his glass eye and threaten to put it in our pumpkin soup. That must be why I was so scared of him...

-A tradition we have at my highschool dances is to get the dj to play the song that goes like"let's do the timewarp again" and then get everyone to dance in a circle. It started in the 80's I think with a bunch of nerds who didn't have dates.

-When I was a bit younger me and my sister and two other friends started playing the fart game. When you fart you have to catch it and then throw it like a lasso at someone. It's very bad if you get caught by the fart... heh we stopped playing that game though

-My great-grandmother has called me George since I was little (even though my name is Celeste). I'm not sure why she does it, but whenever I'm around her my name is George.

-Whenver I'm chopping onions and one falls off I have to yell "ONION OVERBOARD!"
(celestie d'etoile, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 7:52, Reply)

my cat
whenever i see my cat come into the room, i get up and put my foot between her two back legs and push her around like a wheelbarrow.
( cheesemaster a screaming naked asian man driving a semi, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 7:21, Reply)

Being from New Zealand....
....we leave our shacks at 7PM every Wednesday, journey to the nearest farm (usually right over the back fence), and have our wicked way with the sexiest sheep we can find.
I have not partaken for three weeks now, as my girlfriend doesn't understand this fine tradition - mind you, she's off to the freezing works next week, so next Wednesday I'll be back on the market.

Fnar, fnar.
(charles mingus, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 6:51, Reply)

Pots
When opening a new pot of something (e.g. Marmite) - I always have to take a knife and put a cross in the top on the marmite whilst making a wish.. Don't know when/why or how this started out.
(plateau, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 6:47, Reply)

cars
Me and my sister had a game for in the car around the time when I was 16 and she was 14. If you see a car with one headlight out, you have to punch the ceiling of the car. However, my parents didn't like it, so we changed the rules so we'd punch each other rather than the car. They didn't like that either, so we'd just count up the number of cars with one headlight, and then when we got to our destination we'd punch each other in the arm for the number of cars.

Everyone said we should cut it down, so that if I saw 3 and she saw 5, then she would only hit me twice. However, my sister and I agreed that it would be unfair if one person didn't get to punch the other.
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 5:48, Reply)

Not tradition but habit
My mom (mum) is an aggressive driver. When I was a baby if someone cut off my mom she would honk and yell "Asshole!" Cue me and my at the time 2 year old sister driving with my mom and her mother-in-law, my very proper english grandmother (Im American). Gran honks to say Hi to a friend and two year old sister yells "Asshole!".
Grandma didnt like that too much
(WangerPeter, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 5:27, Reply)

Catnip Christmas Card
One Xmas when my cat Tara was a kitten, I received a cheesy, musical Xmas card. It played an annoying medley of Jingle Bells, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, We Wish You A Merry...and so on. Every time I opened the card and it played, she would meow, head-butt me and the card, tilt her head and proceed to roll around, stretch, purr, etc. She's 13 now and it still has the same effect on her. Tonight I sat on my bed with her and played it. It's so goddam cute, I giggle, sing 'nee-nee-nee' and pet her while she's spazzing out. Pathetic but fun for all. (I replace the battery in this electronic card every other year or so.)
Note: Similar happy effect when you just sing to her. Also loves boppy 50's music, runs laps around the house.
(OGH, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 4:43, Reply)

I guess this is a tradition...
But whenever I walk down the streets, people call me names, or giggle at my black lace skirts and smilarly dyed hair. It was the same in all my schools. It seemed to be a tradition that I never had any friends in any school I went to, as well.

The last tradition of mine is "Sit by yourself. They don't like you. Look, they're giggling at you. What's wrong with you that makes you the odd one out? What did you do to deserve the out and out fucking abuse that they hurl every fucking lesson, every time you sit down in class?!"

I'll stop. Now I'm depressed. :(

Edit: Since I'm in a self-hating mood, one more tradition of the people at school was to come up to me with their friends and go "Scuse me. My friend likes you." ... I'm a dyke anyway. It's one more fucking reason to hate me I'm sure.
(Deathway, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 4:18, Reply)

Dude!
you just made me lose the game, I'd got up to about 3 months then as well. How reassuring it is to see how many others play it as well, a lot of my non game playing friends fail to understand the significance of losing 'the game', philistines.
it's got to the point where if I'm with a certain friend I just need to say "ah, shit" (or similar), and he instantly knows what's happpened (he introduced me to it).
ah, great days.
(sextuple rooty, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 2:17, Reply)

My Sister
yells 'BAAA' whenever she passes fields of sheep. We live in Wales. She does this a lot.(No,shes 18 not 8!)
Also -everyone in my family seems to do this- when one of the cats come in the room, we screech his/her name repeatedly as though they have been to kittie heaven and suddenly returned, much to our suprise.
Someone will also always say 'Who shot the kittie!?' in a strange voice if any of them are lying completely still, or sleepin, or upside down.
(Legs 11 last got some loving on, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 1:20, Reply)

No too dissimilar from RedWines post
but every year on January 6th, at Haxey in north Lincolnshire a large crowd of men will gather to play the game of the Haxey Hood.

Basically, everyone gets pissed and tries to get the hood, a large leather baton, back to their favorite pub. Cue about 150 large sweaty drunkards falling on top of each other and crushing those at the bottom of the sway.

The event is lead by the Fool and his twelve boggins all dressed in red. The Fool apparently has the right to kiss any woman he chooses throughout the day. Huzzah for fools!
( We are the lemon irked your craw on, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 1:11, Reply)

When we were about 8,
my twin came down from the loo one morning and proceeded to inform me of his log. For some reason I yelled "toilet!" to which he yelled "weeeee".
For years and years, everytime one of us went for a poo, we'd come downstairs and yell "toilet" and the other one of us would yell "weeee".

This worked most amusingly at my grandads funeral 3 weeks ago (after twin and I hadn't seen each other for 6 years). I had severe diaorhea and jetlag during the wake, I walked out of the restroom into the hall, and as he saw me my twin yelled "Toilet!" After falling about laughing, I responded with " Weeeeeeeeeee". Much to the disgust of the OAP's who had come to pay their last respects to my beloved grandad.
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 0:53, Reply)

Also,
Whenever I go to see my dad, I say: Hey Daddy-O, rockin on the patio? - Just like the cheetohs tiger used to in the ad from the 90's.
Sad, but true.
( sheraloonytunes, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 0:45, Reply)

Loong trips to holiday destinations
In Ausralia, it is somewhat of a tradition to travel upwards of 8 hours in a hot sticky family car to get to a shite camping ground to have a family holiday.
Everytime we would pass a cemetry in a small town, my dad would say: "dead centre of town, people are dying to get in there..."
har har har... but it hasn't stopped me from doing it with the hubby now, has it?!?
( sheraloonytunes, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 0:39, Reply)

Family Tradition betwixt my dad and me
Maybe not weird but ever since a shared moment watching a Benny Hill sketch whenever we hear someone say "I wouldn't have it any other way" we repeat it in the same way that Benny said it that night (southern drawl, if you must know). C'mon, you've all got one of these!

Actually - you're right maybe IS weird.
(karnuvap, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 0:36, Reply)

setimret
Same with my dad at Christmas, its:

Guns of Naverone
Ice Cold in Alax
The student prince (original, not ghay Robson and Jerome version)

For my mum (upstairs)

Funny Girl
Cabaret
Les Miserable stage show

I have the tradition of escaping to the batheroom while this occours, with a bottle of asti-sumate (only booze allowed in our house) and a packet of fags, with the window open and all my neices and nephews christmas annuals. im 25
(Gert-Big-Robot-Gal, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 0:18, Reply)

ambulances and muttering loonies
my gran passed this onto my mum, who then passed it to me. when an ambulance goes past with the sirens going you have to grab your collar and say "hold your collar, be a scholar, never be a patient".
sadly my walk to uni involve going past leeds general infirmary, where there are plenty of ambulances. cue me looking like a muttering loony on a daily basis.
also on new years you have to open the front and back doors to let the new year in and the old year out, or it stagnates according to my mother.
be gentle, its my first time.
(sarcasticgirl, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 0:03, Reply)

My boyfriend's family...
... have a tradition that only aunts and uncles are allowed their elbows to be on the table during dining. I asked if I was allowed to be involved in this tradition on the basis that though I had no brothers or sisters, let alone nieces or nephews, I was going out with an uncle, and should I marry him, I could be considered an aunt. I was shouted down and told to get my filthy non-aunt elbows off the table. That told me.
Oh, and I also drive an old-type Mini, which requires me to laugh insanely when I watch people hitting each other when I pass them by.
( CaroWallis, Fri 29 Jul 2005, 0:00, Reply)

I'M PLAYING THE GAME
Every time you remember you're playing the game, you lose and must admit to all present that you're playing the game.

If you see a yellow car you may punch someone in the arm, and say 'yellow car.'

If you see an Eddie Stobart lorry you have to say 'Eddy Stobart' before anyone else. Hadn't heard of Norman Dentresangle before today, but apparently the two companies are quite hostile with one another.

If I say 'what noise does a [insert animal] make?' the g/f must make the noise. However, she will never be tricked into making a cow moo noise, she will always meow instead. Odd.

Christmas - one present before church, the rest afterwards. Now that we don't go to church, because no-one cares that grannie is religios any more, we can open them all at once, but not before everyone else is sat down with a cup of tea.

I'm playing the game.

If you burp while eating - 'Pardon me for being so rude, it was not me it was my food.' Additionally if you can be arsed 'it just popped up to say hello, and now its gone back down below.'

If you see someone in a vest, say they have a 'vested interest.'

If you see someone with a mullet, shout 'mullet' at them.

End all phonecalls with certain mates by shouting 'playing the game' then hanging up.

Say the lords prayer every day in school assembly unless you were the muslim kid, in which case sit outside the hall every day while everyone else in the school says a prayer.
(Daveh, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 23:54, Reply)

Pants
We have a humpback bridge near us at home that is next to a paint ventor called Johnstone's Paints.

We made up a song when we were Very Young and to this day we must sing it whenever we cross the bridge; it goes:

Johnstonts Pants
Johnstonts Pants
Ants, Fants,
Ants in your pants.

Plus we have many Christmas traditions, and the tradition that whenever I go home (which is often) my mum cooks fish fingers, mummy chips and peas.
(Clarabelle is reverting to type on, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 23:53, Reply)

Keegan!
A friend of mine had a tradition of sneaking up as close as possible to men with big, bad hair and saying 'Keegan!' on the basis that they wouln'd get it. It had to be said right, with the emphasis on 'keeeeeeeee-GUN!'

also, nice one RedWine, that's the sort of tradition we like!
(bloodyHassocks, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 23:36, Reply)

also...
drunken night out tradition. on the way home we'd stop off at the kebab van just to hear the guy shout "CHILLI SAUCE?" in his wonderful accent.

then, after we'd brought our drunk-foods, we'd play a game. you know when you eat too fast, your food doesn't digest properly so you get an awful pain in your chest, and you make 'that face'?

we'd play "how much can you eat before you go *pull face*?"

you'd start the game by singing that, and the first one to pull the eating too fast face is the loser.
(wayneofthedead Dale Winton was my dad, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 23:35, Reply)

rockin' xmas
I have a secret love of really really shit singles - not all, but some. One xmas I started a family tradition by buying the Shakin' Stevens ecksmas single - Merry Christmas Everyone. It not rocked and I played it at 7.00 AM to give everyone a nice xmas suprise. Then I did it every year, still funny as that was, until one year it had 'gone missing'. This year I will get it back and everyone will be happy all over again. happy happy
(bloodyHassocks, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 23:23, Reply)

village of the freaks
i work in a village where it is tradition for the menfolk to have children with their mothers/sisters.this is the reason why they are all fucking oddities and ugly ungratefull twunts.
you can tell the "outsiders" as they look,act and behave like regular humans rather than the people in " the wicker man"
ethnic cleansing was invented for banjo strumming hillbillys like these.

no apologies for an unfuckingfunny anecdote about the size of reproductive organs.
(discodaz *generic witty comment*, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 23:16, Reply)

Enter The Rabbit
Every night, when I arrive home and enter the yard, the dog pops his head out of the garage and barks. Alerted, the rabbit comes out of hiding and she chases me and the dog up the backstairs into the house. Inside, the dog and I run around screaming, closing doors, while the rabbit hurriedly tries to enter every room, particularly the bathroom, spraying pee and dropping pellets as she goes. Then we entice the rabbit outside again with a banana, and proceed to clean up.

Every household needs a daily ritual.
(Perv With A Dog had his eyes pecked out by scrub jays on, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 23:03, Reply)

Once upon a time...
... last October we secretly taped my flatmate (after one bottle of Brandy) as he danced to System of a Down's Toxicity.

It's impossible for any of us to hear that song without replicating his strange moves (inc. the burrower, the nipple tassles and the spacking out)
(Chom, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 22:54, Reply)

did it this morning...
been doing it for a decade now 8^D ever since i was 7, i have never eaten the last corner of toast, never. oh how this helps me on a day-to-day basis.

also, my brother made this thing up once where when we're driving at night and sees a particulary shiny star he'l sing "sh-sh-shiny star, sh-sh-shiny star" in the tune to some forgotten dance song of '01 - its now become a family tradition.

BONUS TRACK:

every christmas my dad puts on the very festive record 'dark side of the moon'...now im partial to a bit of the pink, but its a really surreal image to be opening presents while an echoing voice is whispering "the lunatic is in your head"
(lazy_alias, Thu 28 Jul 2005, 22:30, Reply)