Traditional games from old times

Traditional games from old times



Traditional games from old times: ideas on how to entertain children without "modern" toys
PART TWO


In part one we told you about the games of old times. They were more typical of the villages, but that does not mean that the city children had not played games. The second part is about the so called "City games".

  • Two children hold hands and raise them high as to create a small tunnel between them. Pre counsel who will be white and who will be black stone. The other children were lined up in a row one behind the other with hands on the waist. Singing: "Grind, grind mill, where daily grind - Meli, meli melnichka, deto meli vseki den" and pass under the small tunnel. The two children who form a small tunnel last stop, and surround it with their hands and ask, "Black stone and white stone." If one says "black", sides with the child who has chosen to be black stone and if "white" siding with the other child. So goes the whole row until only one child is left. Then the others cache it by the arms and ask how old it is. If the child answers "10" they begin to pull alternately in both directions, until 10 is counted. The last child remains where they counted the 10. Then both sides begin to pull each other away until one of them wins.
  • Dodgeball - the children are divided into two teams with equal numbers. On the ground plot a large rectangle is drawn divided in the middle into two parts. One child from each group goes to the end of the rectangle of the opposing team. They are called consuls. They throw the ball in the opposing half by trying to hit a child from the opposing team. Whoever is hit with the ball leaves the game. The winning team is the one with at least one remaining player.
  • Straight phone - children rank in a row. The first child says on the ear of the second a word. It is transmitted from child to child and the last child in the row has to say the word that it heard laud. If it is not the same word that started the game the children repeat the word aloud. The child who has mistaken the word is removed from the game.
  • Mother, child and a black man - the game includes at least 5 children to be able to allocate the roles of mother, children and the black man. (And to be more cheerful and noisy!) The game is in the form of a dialogue: - Mother, i want to eat banitsa. (Child) - Okay. Go get flour from the basement. (Mother) The child leaves and returns:- Mother, inside the bag of flour there is a noise. (Child) - Probably the cat. (Mother) A second child is send:- Something moves inside. (Child) - Probably the umbrella of your grandfather. (Mother) Sending third child, it returns - Inside there is something black.Then the mother goes:- Who are you? (Mother) - I am a black man. (Fifth child) - What are you eating? - Human meat.- What are you drinking? - Human blood? - On what do you sit? - A hundred knives.- On what are you lying? - Two hundred swords stuck with the edge upwards.- At what time will you come to eat us? - At 10.All children join hands in a circle and sing while jumping: - One hour passes, the black man isn't here. Two hours passed, a black man isn't here........ nine hours. At 10 o'clock the black man is coming. The children now start to run in different directions with shouts. The black man is chasing them and who he caches first, becomes the new black man.
  • Children are arranged in a circle surrounding one child in the center, and all sing: "In our united class yupaydi, yupaydaimame your Nee an / an / an important miss /mister/. She is called Stella, and, and ... Petko is her most loved. "and you and your .... is repeated until the child in the middle choose another child and the newly elected begins to circle in the middle.
  • Gifts - children rank in a row. The first tells to the second for example: "Go and take off the shoe of the one next to you." The second child says the third, "Go and kiss the fourth" and so on until everyone go under.


Plamena Kirova – Ch. curator
Department „Ethnography“ of RHM Burgas


НА, отдел „Етнография“ а. е. 226, с 1-2
Images: Илия Зайков, Златка Асенова „Играчка – плачка. Български народни игри и играчки за деца“, Художник – Борис Ачков