The countdown to the World Cup in South Africa is now well and truly underway, and with the tournament now just a few short months away, it’s time to start immersing yourself in the culture of the host nation.
1: Theme tune
First up, it's the official anthem – Somalian-born, Canadian-based hip-hop artist K'naan's Wavin Flag. Bear in mind as you tie your scarves around your wrists and follow the formation dancing on screen that this is the first ever official tune for a World Cup.
2: Vuvuzela
But the real musical turn of the tournament will be the plastic horn known as the vuvuzela, which in the mouths of a stadium full of fans sounds like 60,000 bees in attack mode.
At 120db. After last year's Confederations Cup in South Africa, at which they were handed out free to fans, TV stations lobbied for them to be banned from the World Cup for being too noisy and annoying.
Some players agreed, including Spain's Xabi Alonso, who claimed they drowned out the calls from team mates on the pitch.
However, Fifa president Sepp Blatter saw off the naysayers with this statement: "That is what African and South Africa football is all about – noise, excitement, dancing, shouting and enjoyment."
3: Fans
And here's the man who claims to be responsible for the creation of this year's football buzzword, and a potential case of global tinnitus: Freddie "Sadaam" Maake, who is one of Bafana-Bafana's most enduring and endearing fans.
He says he invented the vuvuzela in the mid-60s. Others say it is the bastard cousin of the kudu horn blown to call villagers to meetings in the bush.
Hence the hasty introduction of the kuduzela - shaped like a kudu's horn but made out of recycled materials - to cash in on this summer's craze, but with a percentage of the cost going to South African National Parks.
4: Makarapa
The fashion statement of the tournament will be the makarapa – miner's hard hats that have been elaborately carved, painted and transformed into fantastical headdresses.
The makarapa is the brainchild of squatter camp resident Alfred Baloyi, a former bus cleaner, who initially started wearing a hard hat to matches in the late 70s as protection against flying bottles.
5: Diski
So we have the music, and we have the costume. Now all we need is a bit of a dance-off in the stands. The Diski Dance was launched by South African Tourism last year to get the country in the mood for the "global spectacular".
According to the tourist board's website "it takes its inspiration from African football and is a combination of various football moves used by African players that makes their style of playing the beautiful game so unique and flamboyant".
Diski itself is township slang for football – street football played with a tennis ball, since during the apartheid years, residents of the townships were denied access to playing fields, and they could not afford a proper ball to kick around.
6: Bunny Chow
And if all the exercise – on and off the pitch - leaves you feeling a little bit peckish, look no further than local Durban delicacy Bunny Chow, which makes the English football fan's favoured meat pie resemble a rather effete starter on a nouvelle cuisine menu.
This is the colossus of appetite stoppers – the Fabio Cannavaro of international cuisine, comprising a hollowed-out quarter, half or full loaf of bread filled with any curry, including beef, mutton or chicken.
One account suggests that it was devised as a way for Indian migrants to carry their lunch to the sugar cane plantations.
From The Guardian
