Holidays and traditions you now secretly love from your host country

The long, slow Sunday lunch that takes half the day. I used to find it inefficient; now it's the anchor of my whole week and I'd fight anyone who tried to take it from me.

There's a mid-afternoon coffee-and-cake pause here that's almost sacred, and I resisted it as a productivity thief for about a month before completely surrendering. Now it's my favourite ritual of the day.

A neighbourhood street festival I'd never heard of before moving. The first year I watched from the edge; now I help set up the stalls. Nothing made me feel like I belonged faster.

The way an entire town shuts down and everyone is genuinely off together. It frustrated me when I needed a shop open, but the collective rest is something I've grown to treasure — you actually see people.

A midwinter light festival that I now count down to. Coming from somewhere without it, I underestimated how much a shared seasonal ritual lifts the whole community through the dark months.

OP here — Sofia, the 'watched the first year, ran a stall the next' arc is exactly what I'm hoping for. Lovely to hear it happens if you just keep showing up.

Name-days instead of just birthdays. Double the cake, double the reasons to gather. I have fully adopted this and see no downside whatsoever.

The whole-family video call every single week without fail here made me start one with my own family back home. Borrowed a tradition and improved my own life with it.