First and foremost, I’m a history teacher. But when I can combine two of my favorite pastimes into one activity, it’s always a great time.
Games come from a number of different sources, and we can learn a lot about the cultures they come from if we think about where they came from. There are many rites and rituals included in a number of games. For example, the singing game “Draw a Bucket of Water” comes from old well-worship rites.
Games depict any number of daring tales; gods that preside over the fertility of fields; survival of border warfare, old courtship and marriage observances. Sometimes we make a pretty good guess as to the connection to customs or historical events, and often, if we’re lucky, we can find old records or drawings.
One of the most important sources of games is folklore. Although not strictly scientific, studying a nation’s folklore can reveal some fascinating information about the games that come from that country. When a game is passed on from generation to generation or from child to child – it takes on added importance.
What would your childhood be like if you didn’t learn about Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast or Robinson Crusoe? Now imagine your childhood without Tic Tac Toe, or Tag, or Ring around the Rosie, which was written at the time of Europe’s bubonic plague?
When we look at games and their origins, they become even more fascinating. One can imagine communities becoming divided over some forerunner to American football, village boys and girls dodging through the cornstalks with a game like Barley Break, or milkmaids playing Stool Ball with their stools. Whatever time period we look at, we see the occupations of adults being mirrored in the play of child.
We see in the history of games the history of the human experience. Nothing is too big or too small to be the subject of a game. Nature itself is dramatized, the elements of earth, stone, fire and water; the relationship of animals to man, even the seasons and the planets. Industry, love and war, good guys and bad guys, and even death itself are all