Worldwide Childhood Playground Games
It is likely that wherever you are in the world, there will be a playground game, or derivative of, which has been played by children in playgrounds all over the world.
One such game is Duck Duck Goose, where children sit in a circle facing one another, and one is appointed ‘it’. ‘It’ walks around the circle touching people on the head and saying out loud whether they are a duck or a goose. When a goose is picked, that child gets up and chases ‘it’ around the circle and tries to get to the empty seat first, whoever is left standing becomes (or remains) ‘it’ and has to select a new set of ducks and a goose.
In the Czech Republic this game is called Pesek. Once more children sit in a circle on the playground, and a Pesek is chosen. The Pesek walks around the circle, whilst all the children sitting in the circle have their eyes shut, and bumps into one child sitting down, who then gets up and chases the Pesek around the circle, trying to get to the empty sitting space first.
Lastly in Ghana, there is Antoakyire. This time around, the child walking around the circle sings a song and drops a cloth behind one of the other children sitting in the circle, and carries on as if nothing else has happened. If the child notice the cloth dropped behind them, they get up and chase the other child around the circle to get to the seated position. If they don’t notice the cloth being dropped behind them, and the child walking around the circle makes it around the full circle without that child noticing, then everyone will laugh at that child, and they become the next child to walk around the circle singing and having to drop the cloth.
Has this playground game travelled between cultures, or have the children independently come up with the variations of the game? I just really don’t know. But if you’d like a reminder of the games that you might have played as a child, a good place to look is on Wikipedia.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
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July 29th, 2008 at 9:53 am
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