Any person that steps inside Utah’s borders may find some pretty distinct oddities among our culture, whether it is the foods that we eat, the clothes that we wear, the religious majority we surround ourselves with, or the words that we use.

Fast food joints in Utah all have one thing in common, they definitely know what fry sauce is. Utahns love the mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise. We love it so much that it has become a staple condiment among our culture. Only in Utah does fry sauce have such a strong bond with its people.

Another food item, or beverage rather, that Utahns always seem to love is root beer. Just like fry sauce, root beer has an extremely strong hold in our culture. This may be because, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah has the lowest beer consumption in the country. We probably do because we are drinking root beer instead of real beer.

Different fashion trends seem to circulate in Utah too that may not be in other places. Gjertrud Hope, a foreign exchange student attending Bingham High from Norway, found several different fashion trends in Utah unique. One being the bling often found on the back of our pants. “Your pants kind of have like bling on the pockets; that’s not normal,” said Hope. Another fashion trend that women in Utah seem to love is wearing t-shirts under EVERYTHING. This is probably because of the dominant Mormon culture.

Utah also has a pretty distinct religious culture. In fact, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah’s population is 62.2 percent LDS. So on the religious diversity scale, Utah’s pretty low.  One clue into just how dominant the Mormon culture is in Utah is the amount of LDS churches, stake centers, and temples.

People from out of the state may also find that Utahns word things a little differently than other places. One term that we commonly use that other places don’t is “sluffing.” If you say “sluffing” in Utah schools people will know what you are talking about. This made up word is used in place of the phrase “being truant.”  Utahns also don’t like to swear. In fact, instead of swearing they have come up with replacement words to fill the place of swear words in everyday conversations. For example, words like “frick”, “dang”, or “heck” are constantly used. This causes people to get just a little upset when they hear the real swear words.

Utah’s culture is definitely a little weird. We eat different foods like fry sauce and then we drink root beer with it instead of regular beer. We wear bedazzled jeans and t-shirts under our t-shirts. We pass 30 churches, stake centers, and temples of the same faith just to get to school. When we stub our toe we say, “That hurt so dang much. I hope that door goes to heck.” We may be a little weird, but we are definitely proud of it.