And while taking off your shoes when you go to visit is something Macedonians constantly argue about - some claim that it is a basic culture, while others claim that it is a matter of classical primitivism, there are countries throughout Europe and the world where this is a mandatory practice.

In Macedonia, someone can admonish you or look askance at you if you don't take off your shoes, and they practice this in their homes, but there is one country in the north of Europe where it would be a real scandal if you didn't. It will surely sound unbelievable to you, but it is about Sweden!

If you are invited to the house of Swede, you should know that removing shoes is mandatory. It is something that many Swedes or those who have settled there warn about on their blogs or refer those who are not familiar with these customs.

This, believe it or not, applies even when you are invited to a formal dinner or a celebration in someone else's apartment. The rule about taking off your shoes still applies, no matter how dressed up you may be in a formal dress and it's winter and the floor is cold.

Therefore, as soon as you cross the threshold of an apartment or house of a Swedish family, take off your shoes and carefully place them on the practical shoe rack which every house in this Scandinavian country has.

Swedes not only take off their shoes at home, but this is often the case in kindergartens and schools, gyms, and sometimes even in some doctor's offices, beauty salons... Many Swedes even at work have a spare pair of shoes that they wear while at work. office. The main reason is the higher level of hygiene and greater comfort, the Swedes will tell you, but of course it is also a deep-rooted custom that dates back decades, writes the portal "Thenewbieguide.se".

Sweden in 1936 years founded residential inspection as part of the board for health protection whose responsibility was to make the Swedes forget about unhealthy lifestyle habits such as overcrowding, dirty living spaces and wearing shoes indoors and to acquire better habits regarding cleanliness, maintenance of bathrooms, ventilation... That in the 1930s led to the widespread application of a series of rules, including removing shoes and leaving them at the entrance to the house.