Custom Ceremony
Every culture has a gesture for trust. The shared cup. The broken kola nut. The cord around
two wrists. The blood in the wine. These gestures work because they require presence,
intention, and something given of yourself that cannot be taken back.
When you register with Depth, it asks you a question: how do people form trust where you
come from? The answer becomes part of your Level 1 layer, the first thing anyone learns
about you when you bond. It is a small act of cultural self-disclosure. It signals something
real before either party has said a word.
When two people bond, they see each other's metaphors side by side for the first time.
This is often the most interesting moment of the whole exchange.
Geographic defaults
Depth resolves an approximate region from your IP at registration and suggests a metaphor.
These are the defaults. Each entry carries the local name, the act at its centre, and the
sentence that travels with your bond record.
JP / San-san-kudo In Japan, bride and groom sip sake from three shared cups to seal a bond across families.
🍶 We share the cup
default
CN / Sworn brotherhood The Oath of the Peach Garden, sharing wine or tea with a spoken oath of loyalty.
🍵 We drink as brothers
default
KR / Geonbae You pour into another's glass before your own. The act of giving before receiving is the trust.
🥂 Pour first, drink second
default
PH / Sandugo The ancient Filipino blood compact where blood is mixed into wine and drunk by both parties.
🩸 One blood
default
ID / Sirih pinang Offering and accepting betel nut across Austronesian cultures. To refuse is to refuse relationship.
🌿 We chew together
default
IN / Prasad Accepting food from another's hand is an act of deep trust. You allow their hands into your body.
🙏 What is yours becomes mine
default
NG / Iwa oji In Igbo tradition: presenting, blessing, and breaking the kola nut is how every serious agreement begins.
🌰 Break the kola
default
GH / Schnapps libation Before any serious bond in Akan tradition, schnapps is poured for the ancestors. The earth and the dead are witnesses to the living.
🫗 We pour for the ancestors
default
ET / Buna ceremony The Ethiopian coffee ceremony takes 45 minutes minimum. Three rounds. You cannot rush it. You cannot decline it.
☕ We take the time
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ZA / Ubuntu shared meal Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, a person is a person through other persons. The shared meal is not courtesy, it is ontology.
🍽 I am because we eat together
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SA / Qahwa Arabic coffee accepted seals the meeting. In Arab culture your spoken word is the contract.
☕ Your word, my word
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IR / Sofreh-ye Aghd A sacred cloth spread with symbolic items at commitment ceremonies, passed mother to daughter.
🪡 We lay the cloth
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AR / Mate circle A single gourd passed between people, refilled by the cebador who never drinks first. To be in the circle is to be trusted.
🧉 You're in the circle
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MX / Lazo A cord looped in a figure-eight around two people's shoulders. Literally bound together.
🪢 We are tied
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PE / Tinka Chicha poured onto the earth for Pachamama before drinking. The earth witnesses the bond.
🌍 We give to the ground first
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NO / Fóstbræðralag Norse foster brotherhood: blood let while passing under raised turf. Earth above and blood below, bound to each other and to place.
🌿 Under the same earth
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GB / Handfasting Celtic tradition: wrists bound with cord for a year and a day. The binding is the vow.
🧵 Tie the knot
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DE / Blutbrüderschaft Blood brother pact, deep in German cultural memory.
🤝 One blood, one word
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RS / Pobratimstvo Balkan sworn brotherhood that was prevalent under the Ottoman era as solidarity among the oppressed.
⚔️ Chosen family
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HU / Blood and wine The nine Hungarian tribal chiefs sealed their founding alliance by drinking from each other's blood.
🍷 We drink from one cup
default
Your own words
The suggestion is only a starting point. You can choose any metaphor from the full table,
or write your own in a single sentence. The question the interface asks is: how do people
form trust where you come from? The free answer is stored verbatim and shown alongside the
globe emoji. This keeps the language under the control of the people who live the customs,
not the people who built the protocol.