Transcript 11 PRIMARY EDUCATION SCOOL OF THESSALONIKI GREECE

11TH PRIMARY SCHOOL
OF THESSALONIKI
GREECE
COMENIUS 2009-2011
TRADITIONAL GAMES
OF GREECE
The importance of games in
Greek society
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Games have been very significant in Greek society.
From very old times up to today, games have helped
Greek children to overcome difficult situations. Most
of them unfortunately have been forgotten and
children do not play them any longer. Luckily some of
them still exist and are still played, some in the same
way and some with variations.
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Ancient Greeks realized the significance of the
games. They considered them as means of selfeducation. They also realized how important the
team games were and they more over believed that
trough them a person can reach perfection. That is
why games were part of children’s education. Along
with kids, adults also spent a lot of their free time in
games and sports. In ancient Greece they played a
lot of team games in the streets, yards and there
were always rules that everybody had to follow. They
strongly supported the view that game is a “great
good” because it develops companionship, exercises
the body and the mind and teaches children to
respect the rules of the game so when they grow up
they respect and obey the laws of their country.
Plato the great philosopher stressed the need of
children to play till the age of six, whatever they liked
and which way they liked. He also stressed that they
needed some directions, so through games they
discover which profession suited them best.
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Aristotle advised parents to give to their children
innovative and clever games so that they can
develop their imagination.
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In the Byzantine years we don’t exactly know the
significance of games in their society. Education of
their children was mainly religious and a lot of young
boys became monks. We know for sure that some of
the games we still play were played at that time.
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In the recent years playing games is becoming more
and more difficult. Blocs of flats have reduced open
space, parks and yards. Children find more and more
difficult to play games, instead they occupy
themselves with all kind of electronic games. This
results to serious problems. They become lazy,
lonely, they have weight problems from very small
age and most important of all they become
antisocial. The games we have chosen to present to
you perhaps do not help to an overall understanding
of the Greek traditional games for obvious reasons.
Lack of space is one.
We insisted though on:
The authenticity of each game, pure folk game.
Its roots are deep in ancient years or Byzantine
time
Its social role. We chose games that cause joy,
laughter and help physical and mental
development of children.
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a)
b)
c)
1ST game
BEE
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Girls only.
9 years old.
Third grade.
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The leaders
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The girls form a circle and say the word pair-fingers. At the
last syllable they put their right hand forward, palm in or up.
The first pair with the same side are the two leaders.
How they play it:
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The two leaders talking secretly, decide upon an object of
the same category which will be used later to attract players
in their team, for example: apple or orange, Sun or moon.
Then the two leaders form an arch with their hands up.
The rest of the girls form a line one behind the other holding
each other’s waist. They start walking towards the arch
singing:
The bee is flying
With baby bees
And children.
The children pass through the arch except the last one. She
now has to choose secretly which of the two objects she
prefers. When she has chosen, she goes behind the leader
whose object has been chosen. The game goes like this till
there is only one kid left who is also asked loudly the same
question and goes to the line she belongs. This way two lines
are formed, usually not equal. Each leader stands facing the
other with all their members. They pull each other towards
their side. The group that crosses the line between them,
loses.
2ST game
LITTLE STATUES
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How to choose the leader:
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The children form a circle .
One of them shouts “21”.
At the last syllable of twenty one each child puts forward
his fingers from one finger to five.
The fastest of the children starts counting the fingers
from his right side.
He stops when he has counted 21.
This boy or girl is the leader.
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Rules of the game:
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He or she, who was chosen leader, hides his/her face
and starts counting 5, 10, 15, 20, 25… and suddenly
shouts “one, two, three, red light”.
Everybody has to stay still, freeze, become a statue.
Whoever moves, loses and is out of the game.
When a child touches the leader they all run and when
the leader grabs a kid, he then becomes the new leader
of the game.
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3ST game
PEACE AND WAR
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12 Boys.
9 years old.
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The leaders
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They are chosen the same way as in “ little statues”.
The two leaders then pick their players. Then they
start walking from opposite directions. They walk
straight forward until they meet, and wins the one
who steps over the opponent’s shoe.
His team plays first.
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How they play it:
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The two teams face each other in a distance of 10
meters. The leader can place his players according
to their strength or to his plan. The team that plays
first starts the game shouting rhythmically.
“We want peace”
“We want war” the other team answers back
“Who do you want?”
“…………” (a name)
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They call the name of the boy of the opponent team,
whom they believe to be the weakest, so they can
keep him in their team.
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The chosen boy has to run fast and with a lot of
strength to the other team so that he passes through
the clasped hands, like a chain. He chooses the point
that he thinks is weak and easy to break. If he
manages to break the chain, he returns to his team
bringing a prisoner with him (he picks one). If he fails
to break the chain the opponents capture him. The
game goes on until one team is left with no players.
4ST game
MOSQUE
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Boys and girls.
12 years old.
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6th grade, 12 years old
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The game is played with more than 10 players who fall
into two groups.
They put plastic bricks one on top of the other in the
centre of a small circle. This way they construct a
“mosque”. Around this small circle the players of one
team form a bigger circle. (e.g. the red one)
The players of the other team (e.g. the green team)
stand at a distance of four meters away from the
bricks. And they try to hit the bricks, in turns, until they
drop the bricks down.
When they drop all the bricks or even one, the players
run round and round the circle. They try at the same
time to get in the circle, only three at a time, in order to
rebuild the bricks.
The players of the red team have the ball and try to hit
and force to throw out those who get into the big circle.
If the green team builds the “mosque”, it wins.
If the red team hits all the players of the green team
then the red team wins.
The plastic bricks have replaced the stones that were
used in old times.
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5ST game
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APPLES
Boys and girls.
9 years old.
This is a very popular game even in our
days. It is played with a ball and the players
are more than four.
They split into two teams.
One team stands in the middle. The
members of the other team stand at two
opposite sides allowing a distance of 6-8
meters between them. The children at the
two sides try to hit with the ball the ones
that are in the middle who also try to avoid
being hit by the ball.
At the end, when there is only one kid left in
the middle, he must avoid being hit for 10
sequent times.
if he fails the teams exchange their places.
If he manages to avoid the ball, his team is
the winner and invites his co players in the
middle the game starts again.