Diverse folk games of traditional Tet

Friday, 16/02/2018 22:56
Vietnamese folk games are often associated with the traditional living environment and are close to nature, because they were born under the shortage of facilities as well as simple living conditions as Vietnam is an agricultural country.

Folk games are indispensable part of festivals, because they make people happy, integrated and closer to each other. Adults enjoy tug of war and fighting. Children participate in rope jumping and others.

Therefore, folk games are not only for fun but also contain cultural beauties and have national traditional values.

Mandarin square capturing

This may be one of the most intellectual among folk games of Vietnamese children. Vietnamese children in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city in the 1970s and 1980s used to play this game at least once.

Mandarin square capturing (Source: vietnamplus.vn)

Only chalk, bricks or gravel, and a courtyard are needed for children to test their minds with this game. The playing table is a rectangle divided into ten squares. Each side, there are five 5 symmetrical squares.

In order to win, the player must think of how to win more pawns than their opponent.

Follow-my-leader

This is a collective game, requiring the strength and skill of players. The rules are simple. The leader is a physician or home-owner. Players stand in the long line. The player behind grabs the lapel or hugs the waist of the player in front.

Follow-my-leader (Source: vietnamtourism.com.vn)

Players sing folk songs about a snake rising on the clouds and the tree shaking. Swinging around, the players stop in front of the physician or home-owner and ask him to choose a segment. The physician or home-owner will find a way to catch the person in the chosen segment.

Hide and seek

This is one of the most popular games not only in city but also in the countryside. It is rather simple. After one-two-three, one person will be a loser and must be blindfold in the middle to look for the rest who hold in hands in a circle.

Hide and seek (Source: vietnamplus.vn)
When catching someone, the finder must guess who he/she is. If the guess is correct, the person caught will have to go into the centre with the blindfold. If guessing incorrectly, the blindfolded player will try again to catch other person to guess.

Tug of war

The game attracts many people. It has effect to practise health and create cheer and comfortableness. It becomes a collective game and a popular custom in many places in Vietnam.

Tug of war (Source: CPV)
Playing is simple. Players are divided into two equal sides. There will be a lime mark. The team who can drag their opponents across the mark toward their side will be the winner.

Cockfighting

Cock fighting (Source: vietnamplus.vn)
This was considered an elegant pleasure for both entertainment and encouragement of breeding of farmers in the past. It is played almost all days during Tet and festivals.

Cocks are raised carefully and trained to fight others. Cockfights during Tet often attract many people./.

Compiled by BTA

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