Children’s Game:

Il Pescatore

The Fisherman

Pescatore:  Io sono il pescatore

Con l’amo e con la rete.

O pesci dove siete?

Il Pescatore è qua!

Pesci:        Noi siamo in fondo al mare,

Su, vienici a pescare!

La rete è tutta a buchi;

Mai nessun ci prenderà!

Pescatore:  La rete l’ho aggiustata

E in fundo l’ho calata.

E se fortuna avrò

_______  io prenderò!

Translation:

Fisherman: I am the fisherman

With the hook and the net.

Oh fish where are you?

The fisherman is here!

Fish:           We are down at the bottom

of the sea!

Sure, come here and fish us

The net is full of holes;

No one is ever going to catch us

Fisherman: I have fixed the net

And I cast the net down

And if I am lucky,

I will catch __________

Commonly Used Fish

(although anything works)

anchovy	l’acciuga
shark	lo squalo
cod	il merluzzo
grouper	la cernia
herring	l’aringa
salmon	il salmone
sea bass	il branzino
sole	la sogliola
sturgeon	lo storione
swordfish	il pesce spada
trout	la trota
tuna	il tonno

Antonio learned this game when he was growing up in Sardinia, Italy.  He was about 8 years old and at a large dinner with some family friends, and all of the children were playing games together.  He had never heard of this game before and never really encountered it again growing up.  Despite this, he said that he thought the game was a lot of fun at the time, and has fond memories from this game.

It is played with a group of kids, generally about 10 works best.  Someone volunteers to be the “fisherman” and the rest of the kids are fish.  The fisherman goes around and secretly tells each kid what kind of fish they are.  Then the “fish” all hold hands and walk in a circle and the fisherman walks in the opposite direction and they sing the corresponding parts of the song.  At the end of the fisherman’s song he or she say the name of the fish that he or she wants to catch. That person must then drop hands with their neighbors and run all the way around the outside of the circle and join back in their original spot in the circle without being tagged by the fisherman.  If they are tagged, they become the fisherman and the old fisherman becomes a fish.  If they are not tagged, the game repeats with the same fisherman.

This game is very reminiscent of the common American equivalent “Duck, Duck, Goose”, yet seems more creative as it has its own song.  It is unclear if one of the games originated first and influenced the other one, although it does seem possible.  I also would say that it is fair to assume that the game originated somewhere on the coast as it is about fish and fisherman.

Clapping Game:

“El Conejo de la Suerte”

“The Rabbit of the luck”

“The Lucky Rabbit”

Aqui esta el  conejo de la suerte,

Haciendo reverencias con su cara de inocencia

Tu besaras al chico a la chica que a tu lado esta.

Here it is the rabbit of the luck

Making reverences with his face of innocence

You will kiss the boy or the girl whom you are next to.

Here comes the lucky rabbit,

He is showing reverence with his innocent face.

You will kiss the boy of the girl closest to you.

Pablo learned this song in his hometown of Pamplona, Spain when he was about ten years old.  Although he does not remember exactly who taught him the song, he knows that he learned it from a group of peers during lunch one day at school.  He said the song is pretty common, and that most kids learn it around the age of ten, as this is when kids begin getting interested in the opposite sex.

The way the game is played is that a group of kids, generally no larger than ten, sit in a circle in boy girl order with right hand facing upwards in the palm of the person to the right of them (their left palm is under the hand of the person to the left of them).  As they start singing the song, someone starts the clapping chain by slapping the palm that is face up in their left hand with their right hand.  Then that person does the same thing to their neighbor etc. until the song ends.  The last person to be slapped gets to kiss anyone of the opposite sex that is sitting in the circle.  The game is played for however long the players wish to play.

According to Pablo, rather than being a reward it was generally considered really embarrassing for the person who had to kiss someone else.  Also, because it was up to the individual to choose whom to kiss, it was often revealing of who had crushes on who, and kids could be quite brutal if the crush was not mutual.  Despite this, Pablo said that it was one of his favorite games because “it was fun to see people embarrassed and it was fun.”  Kids would often play it in public parks or anywhere where there wasn’t direct super vision by adults.

Pablo believes that the games origins are related to the Spanish tradition around Easter where young adults in their late teens and early twenties would buy women bunny rabbits (generally chocolate or stuffed animals) as gifts as a way of asking them out on a date.  While it is still occasionally practiced in modern times, it is generally considered an outdated tradition, as dating is not as formal as it was in the past.  Furthermore, in general, the motif of a rabbit generally represents fertility as rabbits are very reproductive creatures.  Therefore in the context of a kissing game, it makes sense that the “lucky animal” is a rabbit as opposed to some other animal like a snake.

It does not come as much of a surprise that this game is popular with children of that age group in Spain, as in the United States games such as “spin the bottle” where someone must spin a bottle in the middle of a group of boys and girls and kiss whoever the bottle stops on (as long as they are of the opposite sex).  It seems that children in the age group of 8-12 are just beginning to become aware of inter-gender interaction of adults, and are themselves beginning to experience sexual urges.  Kids of this age also yearn to be treated as adults, and will thus often mock adult behavior to feel more mature.  Kids also like to rebel against authority at this age, and in general the fact that games such as “the luck rabbit” and “spin the bottle” are generally considered taboo and forbidden by adults, makes the games even more attractive to children.

Direct Quote from Pablo:

“Around age 10, like every other kid in Spain, when we started getting interested on the opposite sex. Then, we would play a game call the lucky rabbit. All the kids (boys and girls) in a circle, would play hand games singing this song. Whenever the song stopped, whoever’s hand had just been slapped would have to kiss the girl or guy closest to him/her.  Rather than being a reward, it would become really embarrassing for the person that had to kiss someone else.  It was one of my favorite games because it was fun to see people embarrassed and it was fun. The game has its origins in the Easter tradition of the Easter Bunnies. Whenever some young adult would get a bunny rabbit as a gift, he would get it from a woman and they would go on a date. It is interesting that later on it became a kid game.”

Ring Around The Rosie

Rosy Posies

I was at work when another co-worker of mine suggested that I look into that old children’s game, Ring Around The Rosie. Her name is Kristen, and when I asked her why she explained that she had head it “had something to do with the black plague.”
So, I looked it up. I remembered playing the game when I was a kid, holding hands with my peers and the exhilaration I felt before letting my legs out and dropping to the grass in laughter.
Line by line, the old rhyme can be analyzed and connected to the Black Death bubonic plague that swept through Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Apparently, the first line refers rose-colored puss boils that people would get all of their body at the start of infection, which would eventually become encircled by dark rings.
The second line refers to the custom of putting posies in the pockets of those killed by the plague, in order to warn people from going near the body, because the disease was extremely contagious.
“Ashes, Ashes” refers to the ashes of the dead, because those who died of the disease would eventually be burned to ashes in order to stop the spread of the Black Death.
The last line, “We all fall down” refers to peoples fear that the disease would wipe out the entire population of the earth. Almost everyone knew someone who died of the disease, and it wiped out a large portion of the population.