Tag Archives: Game

Marble Game

Nationality: French American
Age: 56
Occupation: University Professor
Residence: Pasadena CA
Performance Date: April 16, 2020
Primary Language: English

Context: 

This piece was collected in a casual interview setting in the informant’s back yard. My informant (JP) was born in Lynon, France, and moved to California in 2002 with his wife for their jobs at Caltech. He is a professor of Seismology, enjoys playing tennis and guitar, has two teenage daughters, and loves to sing old French camp songs he learned as a kid. 

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the informant (JP) and interviewer.

Interviewer: So tell me about the marble game you used to play when you were little.

JP: *visibly excited* Yes, yes, yes, so it went like this *gets up from his chair, and sits on the ground, making a big v shape with his legs and waves for interviewer to sit down next to him* So we would each face each other like this, place a marble here *points to the middle of the V created by his legs* it would be a Agathe [name of glass marble], one of the good marbles, and with our billes de terres [mud marbles] we would take turns trying to touch each other’s Agathe marble. But it could only touch, if you moved the Agathe it didn’t count and each time you missed, the person you played against could keep your marble, that’s why we played the low level bille de terre not an Agathe, but if you touched the opponent’s Agathe, you won it. *motions rolling a marble, as if he were playing* So the aim of the game was to collect other kid’s marbles. 

Interviewer: Can you explain what the different marbles were?

JP: So there were billes de terres, which means, like, marbles of the earth, or more like mud marbles. Those were not of high level. Then there were Agathes, which is the ones you want to collect. They weren’t actually made of agate stones, but in the olden days they used to be. And then after, there were the big marbles, the prettiest and highest level ones, the Bigarrots. They were like Agathes, but bigger. Since they were bigger, they were easier to touch, but they would also attract more attention so more people would play with you and you could collect more billes de terres. So it was a tactful play.

Interviewer: How old were you when you played this game?

JP: Um, wait, let me think about it… Uh, I was around, let’s see, I want to say six years old, and we played until we were around ten. At that point, we played other marble games. 

Interviewer: What was the name of the game? And how did you learn it?

JP: We just played it in school. It was really popular. I think it was just called Le Jeux de Billes, the marble game. It’s a game that’s pretty close to my heart since it was such a big part of my childhood.

Thoughts: 

The Marble Game has transcended centuries and cultures and is truly one of the games that I think brings together a large global group of people who all played the same game as children. Since marbles can be acquired easily and cheaply, and the rules of the game are simple, it makes sense that so many children played it. However, I worry that with the advance of technology and children relying on electronics to have fun at younger and younger ages, this simple, fun game will gradually disappear. 

Tunnel Etiquette

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Preschool Teacher
Residence: California
Performance Date: 3 - 27 - 2020
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the informant and the interviewer.

Interviewer: I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about this before, but do you know what you’re supposed to do when you drive through a tunnel?

Informant: I’ve heard a lot of things haha but I haven’t done most of them since I was a kid. 

Interviewer: Yeah same haha my sister told me that we should hold our breath and touch the ceiling, and then say Banana as soon as we got out the other side of the tunnel.

Informant: Yeah ours was similar but we had to put our feet up too and just say any fruit. I haven’t done it since I started driving though haha

Background:

My informant was born and raised in Southern California. Her Parents were also raised in the same area. She grew up near my hometown, where the only routes to the beach have several tunnels to get there, so I knew she would have some insight into this subject of what to do when going through tunnels.

Context:

I spoke to my informant over a facetime call during the 2020 Coronavirus epidemic. We had plans to meet in person, however, the quarantine made that impossible.

Thoughts:

I was surprised by how different her approach was when going through a tunnel, even though there were similar aspects. We grew up within miles of each-other, so I expected us to have basically the exact same story. This just made me realize that who you hang out with does actually play a very large role in what you think is true, even if we get most of our information from the internet these days. 

Daeden-Zzi: the Game

Nationality: Korean
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seoul, Korea
Performance Date: 3 April 2020
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Original script: 데덴찌 in Korean, 手天地 in Japanese

Phonetic (Roman) Script: Daeden Zzi

Transliteration: The back of the hand and the palm

Full Translation: Back of the hand or palm, choose one

Main Piece:

Daeden zzi is a game played very commonly by kids in Korea. Daeden zzi isn’t the game tho, it’s simply a process to begin any given game. Basically, daeden zzi is a team dividing method. Let’s say a group of kids are trying to play basketball, and they have to divide up into two teams. Everyone would gather around in a circle, and they say “Daeden zzi” out loud. Kinda like rock paper scissors, at the end of the phrase you reveal your hand- whether it’s facing up or down, either the back of your hand or the palm – and you become teammates with everyone with the same hand as you. If it’s a game that requires an even number of people in each sides, you would repeat the process until everyone’s evenly split. If it’s a game that doesn’t require the same number of people, then you just roll it once.

What’s interesting is that Daeden zzi comes from a Japanese word that translates to “the back of the hand and the palm”, the name isn’t translated into Korean, it’s still a Japanese word that Koreans use. So unless you speak Japanese, a given Korean kid playing this game wouldn’t even know the name’s meaning, but they kinda do, they know that the game Daeden zzi refers to choosing between the back of the hand and the palm. Daeden zzi is one of many children’s games that come from Japan, a lot of these folk traditions came to Korea during the forced occupation under Japan in the early 1900s. Koreans don’t like Japan but a catchy game is a catchy game (laughs).

Background:

The informant is a college student residing in Seoul, Korea. She was born and raised there, and describes that she played the game daeden zzi quite often growing up, mostly from age 7 till middle school. She doesn’t remember when or how she specifically learned this game. She also has a study abroad experience in Irvine, California when she was in 4th grade, she went to an elementary school in America for a semester. During her time, she introduced the game to her non-Korean friends, effectively spreading the game. Though she’s not sure if the students at her school continued to practice the game after she had left, but it isn’t uncommon to find Korean American children play this game.

Context:

The conversation took place over the phone, while the informant was in her college dorm by herself, in her comfortable environment.

My thoughts:

I remember being a kid trying to divide up teams for whatever game I was playing. If the method of dividing was by having two team leaders pick a member at a time, it instantly creates a problem; there’s a power imbalance amongst the players, and it might hurt the feelings of those who aren’t chosen until the very end. In that sense, I think deaden zzi is the fairest method to divide everyone up- it’s purely random.

La Migra

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Ana, Orange County, California
Performance Date: 15 April 2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece:

The following is transcribed from a conversation between the interviewer and the informant.

Informant: So when I was in 6th and 7th grade, the kids at my school would play this game during lunch called “La Migra”, it means ‘immigration’ in Spanish. Basically it’s like tag, whoever is the ‘catcher’ would run around and try to catch people. If you do catch someone, you yell “La Migra” and the one who got caught becomes the catcher, and so on.

Interviewer: Were the students participating in the game mostly Latinx? Or did kids of all ethnicities join?

Informant: I went to a really Mexican school, so everyone was pretty much Latinx yeah. I’m not sure if someone who’s not Latinx could even play this game, because so much of it is like, self inflicted harm (laughs).

Interviewer: Can you describe that further?

Informant: We were all very much around immigration and ICE and stuff our whole lives, like whether that be someone in our family or just someone we know. All that stuff, boarder patrol and whatnot, is just something that’s always present in our culture, and it’s really fucked up that it is. I think this game was kinda created because of that, for kids to like process this messed up reality into like a lunchtime game. Or maybe it was jut middle school kids being stupid and edgy as they all do, I don’t know.

Background:

My informant is of Latinx descent, and currently resides in Santa Ana, Orange County, a city where majority of the population is made up of Latinx people. The city of Santa Ana also has had city-wide protests against the mayor for failing to provide a safe environment for undocumented immigrants, as ICE raids increased and the city police provided aid to ICE during these raids.

Context:

The conversation took place on the phone, and the informant was in her room by herself.

My thoughts:

Middle schoolers can be really dark for the sake of being dark, it’s something about that age and puberty starting that makes everyone gravitate towards being ‘edgy’. But I think this game is more than just being provocative, I think it shows the very reality of children growing up in a hostile environment, coping with such stress by making a ridicule out of it.

The Greek Egg Tradition

Nationality: American/Greek
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: DC
Performance Date: 4/22/20
Primary Language: English
Language: Greek

G: I can start with Easter since that just happened. One of the main traditions is the boiling of these red eggs. And the red is supposed to represent the blood of Jesus when he was crucified- and you crack them with other people after doing a set of sayings: one person says “Christ is risen” and the other person says “truly he is risen” and then you crack eggs with each other and whoever’s egg doesn’t crack “wins”. It’s supposed to mean something if your egg doesn’t crack but I can’t remember.

In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are a symbol of new life. Eggs were used by early Christians to represent the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This, in turn, symbolizes the rebirth or renewal of all those who believe in Christianity. The Orthodox custom is to dye Easter eggs a dark red color. Red represents the blood of Jesus Christ and victory. These eggs are sometimes decorated with etchings or the holy cross on the face.

For the informant, this tradition is a monumental piece of their Greek heritage which is why it’s so important. The winner of this game is said to have good luck for the rest of the year. I see this tradition as a way for Christians to remember Jesus’ sacrifice. I also see this as a fun way to bring families together. The mere celebration of Easter is sacred and should be experienced with people who love you. Eggs have forever been seen as a symbol of life and, in a way, playing this game symbolizes the renewal of familial bonds.

For another account of this game, please see Venetia Newall’s (1971) An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study, p. 344