The phrase "a widespread custom" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a practice or tradition that is commonly accepted or observed by a large number of people within a particular culture or society.
Example: "In many cultures, giving gifts during the holiday season is a widespread custom that brings families together."
Alternatives: "a common practice" or "a prevalent tradition."
A widespread custom going back into early human history, cannibalism has been found among peoples on most continents.
It is a widespread custom to start with a piece of apple dipped in honey while a prayer is said asking God for a sweet year.
"The pleadings suggest a widespread custom or failure to train," wrote Judge Berman, who added that he was not yet ruling on the truth of the plaintiffs' allegations.
These objects are all connected with fertility; the mixing of all manner of magical things with seeds to make them sprout better is a widespread custom.
In a ruling in January allowing the case to go forward, Judge Berman wrote, "The pleadings suggest a widespread custom or failure to train".
Bars, which are open all day, generally serve food as well as drink, and it is a widespread custom to go for a snack before meals, especially on non-working days.
Such treatments – part of a widespread tradition of "medicinal cannibalism" using flesh, fat, blood and bone – were so popular that come the 18th century, there were customs duties on skulls imported from the battlefields of Ireland.
The biblical practice of driving the scapegoat from the community, described in Leviticus 16, gave a name to this widespread custom, which was said by the French intellectual René Girard to explain the basis of all human societies.
Handshaking, for example, is a widespread Turkish custom, and most women follow it.
But the byline had been established and would eventually become a widespread newspaper custom.
Nicholas's miracles were a favourite subject for medieval artists and liturgical plays, and his traditional feast day was the occasion for the ceremonies of the Boy Bishop, a widespread European custom in which a boy was elected bishop and reigned until Holy Innocents' Day (December 28).
