Tag Archives: children’s game

The Warid Game

MP is a 47 year old Syrian immigrant from Damascus, Syria. She is an accountant and has lived in the U.S. for almost 30 years now. She explains a game that she would play as a little girl with her friends in Syria. She said girls from 1st to 6th grade would play this game and they called it “warid” which is rose in Arabic. 

MP: You stand in a circle with your friends. You can play with two people, but we liked it better when we would play in big groups. So, you and your friends all make a circle and hold hands and you chant “sakir warda” and we would all run into the circle. Then, we chant “iftah warda” and run back to our original spots. It is a very simple game, but we would just have fun holding hands, and chanting, and running together.

Context: This was told to me in an in-person conversation, and I was able to perform it.

Thoughts:

Although it is such a simple game I can see how much fun it would be to 5-12 year old girls. The chant “sakir warda” means close the rose, and the chant “iftah warda” means open the rose. In Syria, gender norms are still heavily adhered to so I could see why this would be such a popular game for little girls, especially around 40 years ago. It is feminine in all aspects and my informant told me it was typically played at school and at parties. 

The Salata Game

MP is a 47 year old Syrian immigrant from Damascus, Syria. She is an accountant and has lived in the U.S. for almost 30 years now. She explains a game that she would play as a little girl with her friends in Syria. She said girls from 1st to 6th grade would play this game and it was called “salata.”

MP: 

One person would start the chant: “Salata, salata, tabal-naha, kushi fiya illa bandora.”

Translation: Salad, salad, we made it, everything is in it except tomatoes.

Then, the next person would reply by chanting: “Bandora fiha, wa kulshi fiha illa khass ma fia.”

Translation: It has tomato in, and everything in it except lettuce is not in it.

And the game would continue with each person chanting about a different vegetable to add to their salad. 

Context: This was told to me in an in-person conversation, and I was able to perform it.

Thoughts:

Although my informant played this in Syria as a little girl, it was also a game that I used to play in America. It was used in my Arabic school to teach us what vegetables are called in Arabic in a fun way. When my informant told me about this game, I was surprised that it was one that I already knew and have played before. This game was played by both boys and girls, however my informant told me that when they would play it in Syria, typically the boys played with the boys and the girls played with the girls. When I would play it years later in my Arabic class, boys and girls all played together. 

Four Square (Game)

Text:

“There are four squares [on the ground] and everyone stood in an individual square and one square was the “King” – the person who had done the best so far or got there first in the beginning. You are hitting a ball in a square [from one person to the other], calling different names out of moves or “tricks”. One move was “around the world”, where if the ball hits in your square you have to spin before hitting it out. You moved up in ranks if you did well, and if you didn’t hit it, lost the ball, if you hit it out of your square, or it double bounced [bounced twice] in your square you would be out. One move was called the “penny drop” where you hit the ball really lightly so it would double bounce in someone’s square, and they would be out.”

Context:

MM is a 24-year-old American Missionary from a town in the middle of California. I asked her about any games she remembers playing while growing up and what the rules were for the game. 

Interpretation:

Four Square is a game I played growing up during recess as well, but for me, it looked a bit different than the way my informant described it. While the basic rules remained the same, we had a distinct oikotype of the game that didn’t involve the tricks that my informant mentioned. When I mentioned some of the rules of the way I played it growing up, my informant hadn’t heard of those either. It’s interesting to me that I could’ve gone to any group of children where I am from and the rules would’ve been the same, but now if I tried to play it with people from a different state, we probably wouldn’t be able to agree on how it would be played to the point where a game with a basic concept has completely different rules in different places. Games like these can develop subcultures where children really take them seriously and competitively and they turn into more of a sport than a game. It showcases the inherent competitiveness of kids and their way to make creative fun of their own. 

Sharks and Minnows (Game)

Text:

“Sharks and Minnows – there would be a shark and they would tag people (the minnows) who were running across a defined space and the sharks could touch anyone anywhere that wasn’t in the ‘safe zone’ at the beginning and end of the defined space. Once the shark touches a minnow then they become another shark and the game goes in that manner with people running back and forth across the defined space until everyone has been tagged except one final minnow who becomes the shark in the next round. ‘Run minnows Run’ is the chant that goes along with it.”

Context:

OA is a 21-year-old American student at USC. She grew up in Washington. I asked her about any games she remembers playing while growing up and she told me about “Sharks and Minnows”. 

Interpretation:

This game is similar to one I played growing up called “Ships Across the Ocean”. The rules are pretty much the same, but the chant is different, and the name is different. I assume because of how similar the rules are that this is an example of monogenesis (one origin) and diffusion, instead of polygenesis (multiple origins). It’s likely that this game developed somewhere and spread across the country (and perhaps to other countries as well), but the name got changed as different people played it. It isn’t uncommon for kids to change the rules of games to fit their likings or to fit a certain context the game is being played in. Kids are creative and play games to spend time with each other, and they can get incredibly competitive. A game like this is fun because you had to be fast, but you also had to be agile and play smart when trying to evade the sharks, so it made it so that boys and girls alike could excel in it and different people were winning each time. 

Eenie Meenie Miney Moe – Children’s Rhyme

Text:

“Eenie meenie miney moe, 

Catch a tiger by his toe, 

If he hollers let him go, 

Eeine meenie miney moe.”

Context:

JN is a 50-year-old freelance writer in Minnesota, where she grew up as well. I asked her about any traditions she remembers from when she was a child, such as rhymes or things of that sort. She told me that this rhyme was said by kids, “…And whoever it landed on [when they said the last “moe”] was the person who was ‘it’ and we used it for things like tag or jump rope.” 

Interpretation:

This rhyme was a way for kids to “fairly” decide who was “it” during gameplay. Kids really emphasize fairness, and no one likes being “it”, so doing a game like “eenie meenie miney moe” is a way to randomize who is “it”. Even though much of this rhyme isn’t real English words and the phrases don’t make sense, it does rhyme, so it sounds good together and flows well. The words themselves aren’t what give it meaning, instead it is the context in which they are used. And there is variation among this rhyme as well, as I have heard the last line said as “and you are ‘it’” or “and you are not ‘it’” in different situations. Games are fun for children when they are perceived as fair, so little rhymes and other things like this have developed as a way to ensure fairness while also allowing the games themselves to continue. Even if you don’t want to be “it” and put up a fuss, you can’t really argue with “eenie meenie miney moe.” And this rhyme is short and easy to remember and learn, which explains its spread and continued use across long periods of time (at least from when my informant was a kid a few decades ago to when I was a kid about a decade ago).