Seemingly most people drink and its very common to go out drinking with friends. Some people definitely drink too much though.
From Sweden.. it’s messed up and we can’t handle it. That’s why it’s so heavily regulated and can only be purchased from the government owned chain Systembolaget.
They use containers to drink. For example mugs and glasses. Sometimes sipping from special fountains.
Socially acceptable. Not uncommon to just go for a drink on a weekday after work, especially when the weather is nice.
Most people i knew around 16-18 even gotten their first alcoholic drinks from their parents. And there are whole festivities in multiple parts of the country that basically evolve around drinking. Their roots are set in Christianity, and togetherness. But in general it’s 3-5 days of non-stop drinking during those festivities. To a point that some parts of some towns just become one giant open air bar.
Beer everywhere. Hanging with your buds, why don’t grab a Carlsberg beer. At a party how about some Tuborg. Eating dinner or at a restaurant, what about trying the Harbo beer.
Maybe a little different in the cities but in the towns and rural areas of Ireland they tend to not drink until the weekend and then get hammered on Friday or Saturday.
Quite bad. Lol. Binge drinking is still a feature of the culture
Gen Z is increasingly not drinking though, and we have a history of teetotal movements.
It depends.. there’s a lot of social spaces where it’s accepted so I’d say its overall a lot of drinking over time in ”acceptable” amounts most of the time.
Omnipresent. We’re big on both beer and wine, and social drinking in general. People meeting and hanging out in the evening pretty much always involves social drinking.
I mean – do I need to be specific, just look at the statistics. Although I don’t mind an occasional drink and/or beer here and there, I find the drinking culture here to be a bit too much.
We usually either pour the liquid into a glass or mug or drink it straight out of the bottle. We bring the container to our lips, open our mouth, tilt the container to let the liquid flow into our mouth, tilt the container again the other way to avoid the liquid spilling everywhere, close our mouth and use our tongue to bring the liquid to the back of our throat and down our oesophagus. Then we either take another sip from the container or lower the container and either hold it in our hand or put it down, preferably on a flat surface like a table. We drink seated or standing usually; drinking while in a laying position is possible but has to be done with much care to avoid the liquid going down our airways.
We like to drink water, milk, juice, tea, coffee, soft drinks or alcoholic beverages among others. We tend to drink alcohol more often when we are hanging out with other people. Regardless of what we are drinking, when we are at a social event, we have a tradition of holding up our container, going around each person in the group, looking them in the eye and striking our container with theirs; only when we have struck our container with everyone else’s do we begin to drink.
I would say similar to Britain. A lot of binge drinking. People can’t go for just one or two drinks, it often turns into a full on sesh.
You really notice it in places like airports where people wouldn’t bat an eyelid at getting pints of lager in at 6am in the departure lounge.
A lot of people drink everyday but not necessarily to get drunk. A glass of wine with meals or a beer after work is commonplace.
Binge drinking is mostly something done on weekends. And mostly by young people like students and whatnot.
I live in Belgium.
Born in Chimay, living near Maredsous & Leffe.
Every town has their own beer here.
Drinking is part of the culture here. In a surprisingly okay way.
Here, there’s the usual : drink with friends, beers or stronger stuff. Mostly everything goes smoothly but there’s our fair share of slippy evening or alcoholism.
And then there’s the wine. It can be nice as you can get good local products for cheaper than it’s available in the rest of the country and anything from the country for cheaper than it’s exportation price to Europe or the rest of the world. And it’s hard to explain when you haven’t experienced it but in the wine regions of France the grapes are everywhere. I’ve mostly seen Bordeaux region (I live there), Champagne and Alsace. Travelling those regions you can feel like it’s hard to see a field with anything else than grape. And the wine production is very different for the 3.
The downside of the wine culture is that sometimes you can feel like alcohol (and mostly wine) gets a pass. It’s improving with time but you can still see a lot of people tending to turn a blind eye on things that shouldn’t be (alcoholism, drunk driving…). My grandparents (born in the 1920s) had a bottle of wine on the table for each meal for their whole life. It’s not the same nowadays but there is still wine for all family diners and I would have a hard time convincing my parents (born after ww2) that alcohol and weed are quite similar on many levels. I don’t drink wine and it’s sometimes hard to explain to people that I just don’t like it.
We coined the term ”kalsarikännit” which means getting drunk in your underwear with no intention of going out.
So to answer the question, yes.
Used to be binge drinking in the UK. Teetotal most of the week, but come Thursday (ladies’ night) Friday, Saturday, it was drink till you drop… or breathalysed. These days, my sons generation, it’s just not a thing. The club scene took a real hit during the pandemic, and kids these days just don’t drink. What a healthy bunch of squares
Canadians don’t drink as much as many other countries do, apparently and surprising to me. Drinking in general is decreasing among younger generations.
Going out for a drink after work on a Friday or even a weekday is reasonably common but I wouldn’t say it’s an inherent part of our culture. Additionally these days and since around the early 2000’s, going out for a beer really means going to a craft brewery or tap house that has a variety of beer styles. Previous to the late 90’s or maybe 2000 it would have meant going to a bar and drinking “mainstream” lagers made by two or three macro breweries (Molson, Labatts, etc.)
I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest that in Quebec, drinking culture is probably a little different than what I’m describing above but I’ll defer to someone from that province to speculate.
20 comments
Seemingly most people drink and its very common to go out drinking with friends. Some people definitely drink too much though.
From Sweden.. it’s messed up and we can’t handle it. That’s why it’s so heavily regulated and can only be purchased from the government owned chain Systembolaget.
They use containers to drink. For example mugs and glasses. Sometimes sipping from special fountains.
Socially acceptable. Not uncommon to just go for a drink on a weekday after work, especially when the weather is nice.
Most people i knew around 16-18 even gotten their first alcoholic drinks from their parents. And there are whole festivities in multiple parts of the country that basically evolve around drinking. Their roots are set in Christianity, and togetherness. But in general it’s 3-5 days of non-stop drinking during those festivities. To a point that some parts of some towns just become one giant open air bar.
Beer everywhere. Hanging with your buds, why don’t grab a Carlsberg beer. At a party how about some Tuborg. Eating dinner or at a restaurant, what about trying the Harbo beer.
Maybe a little different in the cities but in the towns and rural areas of Ireland they tend to not drink until the weekend and then get hammered on Friday or Saturday.
Quite bad. Lol. Binge drinking is still a feature of the culture
Gen Z is increasingly not drinking though, and we have a history of teetotal movements.
It depends.. there’s a lot of social spaces where it’s accepted so I’d say its overall a lot of drinking over time in ”acceptable” amounts most of the time.
Omnipresent. We’re big on both beer and wine, and social drinking in general. People meeting and hanging out in the evening pretty much always involves social drinking.
I mean – do I need to be specific, just look at the statistics. Although I don’t mind an occasional drink and/or beer here and there, I find the drinking culture here to be a bit too much.
We usually either pour the liquid into a glass or mug or drink it straight out of the bottle. We bring the container to our lips, open our mouth, tilt the container to let the liquid flow into our mouth, tilt the container again the other way to avoid the liquid spilling everywhere, close our mouth and use our tongue to bring the liquid to the back of our throat and down our oesophagus. Then we either take another sip from the container or lower the container and either hold it in our hand or put it down, preferably on a flat surface like a table. We drink seated or standing usually; drinking while in a laying position is possible but has to be done with much care to avoid the liquid going down our airways.
We like to drink water, milk, juice, tea, coffee, soft drinks or alcoholic beverages among others. We tend to drink alcohol more often when we are hanging out with other people. Regardless of what we are drinking, when we are at a social event, we have a tradition of holding up our container, going around each person in the group, looking them in the eye and striking our container with theirs; only when we have struck our container with everyone else’s do we begin to drink.
I would say similar to Britain. A lot of binge drinking. People can’t go for just one or two drinks, it often turns into a full on sesh.
You really notice it in places like airports where people wouldn’t bat an eyelid at getting pints of lager in at 6am in the departure lounge.
A lot of people drink everyday but not necessarily to get drunk. A glass of wine with meals or a beer after work is commonplace.
Binge drinking is mostly something done on weekends. And mostly by young people like students and whatnot.
I live in Belgium.
Born in Chimay, living near Maredsous & Leffe.
Every town has their own beer here.
Drinking is part of the culture here. In a surprisingly okay way.
Here, there’s the usual : drink with friends, beers or stronger stuff. Mostly everything goes smoothly but there’s our fair share of slippy evening or alcoholism.
And then there’s the wine. It can be nice as you can get good local products for cheaper than it’s available in the rest of the country and anything from the country for cheaper than it’s exportation price to Europe or the rest of the world. And it’s hard to explain when you haven’t experienced it but in the wine regions of France the grapes are everywhere. I’ve mostly seen Bordeaux region (I live there), Champagne and Alsace. Travelling those regions you can feel like it’s hard to see a field with anything else than grape. And the wine production is very different for the 3.
The downside of the wine culture is that sometimes you can feel like alcohol (and mostly wine) gets a pass. It’s improving with time but you can still see a lot of people tending to turn a blind eye on things that shouldn’t be (alcoholism, drunk driving…). My grandparents (born in the 1920s) had a bottle of wine on the table for each meal for their whole life. It’s not the same nowadays but there is still wine for all family diners and I would have a hard time convincing my parents (born after ww2) that alcohol and weed are quite similar on many levels. I don’t drink wine and it’s sometimes hard to explain to people that I just don’t like it.
We coined the term ”kalsarikännit” which means getting drunk in your underwear with no intention of going out.
So to answer the question, yes.
Used to be binge drinking in the UK. Teetotal most of the week, but come Thursday (ladies’ night) Friday, Saturday, it was drink till you drop… or breathalysed. These days, my sons generation, it’s just not a thing. The club scene took a real hit during the pandemic, and kids these days just don’t drink. What a healthy bunch of squares
Canadians don’t drink as much as many other countries do, apparently and surprising to me. Drinking in general is decreasing among younger generations.
Going out for a drink after work on a Friday or even a weekday is reasonably common but I wouldn’t say it’s an inherent part of our culture. Additionally these days and since around the early 2000’s, going out for a beer really means going to a craft brewery or tap house that has a variety of beer styles. Previous to the late 90’s or maybe 2000 it would have meant going to a bar and drinking “mainstream” lagers made by two or three macro breweries (Molson, Labatts, etc.)
I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest that in Quebec, drinking culture is probably a little different than what I’m describing above but I’ll defer to someone from that province to speculate.
Well, it’s [bad](https://www.euronews.com/health/2025/04/05/dry-january-where-in-europe-is-drinking-alcohol-getting-worse-and-which-countries-have-cut), but we’re sobering little by little.
In Ireland, historically, a huge part of society revolved around the pub and still does in parts…
Compared to a lot of other cultures it’s probably excessive and unhealthy but also completely normalised, especially in rural areas.