No Chewing Gum to Russia!
By Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 7/1/2007
If you are parceling up chewing-gum to send off to Russia as a gift, or binoculars for Dubai or honey for Switzerland, stop! You'll be breaking the law. Exactly why chewing gum isn't welcome in Russia isn't officially known. Nor is any government official willing to shed light on the fact that the Swiss don't want grapes or gifts associated with horoscopes. It isn't difficult to see why Israel prohibits knives, swords and daggers; why India doesn't like toy or dummy weapons; and why bees, leeches and silkworms are bad news in many places.
Gift dealers long to know why Afghanistan forbids ashtrays; why Guyana doesn't like artificial Christmas trees; and Corsica, playing cards. Why are used bed linen and worn footwear so unpopular in Greece? Jaded lovers in Nigeria, Rhodesia and Malawi could remain so, since aphrodisiacs by mail are banned in all three countries. Send a gift to a particularly mountainous part of Greenland, and you'll find it's likely to be dropped from an aircraft. In which case, if your gift box contains butane gas lighters or bees — both forbidden to be sent by post to Greenland — they'll be in a sorry state when finally delivered. —May 1979
