[EF#15 Weekly Challenge] Traditional Games: Cheap and Festive

One day, I saw someone talking with small children who were playing hide and seek when I’m through the street where they played.

“They hide over there!” She shouted to one of the children, pointing to a half-finished building.

The boy went straight to the building and found several children who hide. Immediately he called the name and sprinted toward the wall of one of the neighbor’s house and then touch it. And then they laught together.

The games that I played in my childhood are cheap and fun. But not the children games now.

In my childhood, I and my friends played some children games together. There are several types of games we played like Galasin, Bentengan, Tok Kadal, Tok Uber, Tok Jongkok, Batu Tujuh, Dor Nama, and Petak Umpet.

Using the road at night or school badminton court when a break or before classes start, I and my friends play Galasin. The game consists of two teams. Each team consists of a minimum of three people. Running speed and skill to outwit opponents play are needed in this game. A member of the team that made it through the lines guarded by the opponent and go back to the same place will make the team as the winner. But when one of the team members touched by a member of opponent team, the must change position. After playing Galasin, my shirt dan my body became wet with sweat.

Bentengan, this game where I live called ‘Tak Pancing’. Just like Galasin, this game consists of two teams. Usually we play at night. We use two electricity poles on both sides of the road, as a base of both teams. Under the light, we run and outwit other team so they cannot touch us. The team that can touch opponent’s base will be the winner.

In Tok Kadal, we use two pieces of bamboo. One of them has length about thirty centimeters and used as a hitte. The other one is shorter. In this game, one person as a pitcher or hitter, perform three types of movement repeatedly. He muts keep the shorter bamboo not been caught by an opponent who is always ready to catch it. If it caught, then opponent will receive points. 25 points for the first movement, 50 points for the second movement, and 100 points for the third movement. That points ​​are given when the bamboo catch with both hands, when it catch with one hand, the points are doubled. The pitcher or hitter will get score when the distance between the small bamboo and stones that used as the center of the game. The winner is the highest point.

Tok Uber and Tok Jongkok, both are similar games. One child chasing other children so he could touch him or her. When He or She touch other player, then touched player turn to chase him or her. And so on. In Tok Uber, player should not be pursued squat, while in Tok Jongkok, when player are being pursued was already tired and want to rest, He or She could squat for a while. He or She may wake up when other player who pursued touch him or her.

Hide and seek, Batu Tujuh, and Dor Nama are games of skill in hiding.

Hide and seek probably the most popular game. One child looking for his friends that hide. Usually before the search began, the child should count from one to ten.

In game Batu Tujuh, a player who has duty as a gurad should construct seven stones after broken down by other players who would hide. This is probably as a replacement for the count time in the game of hide and seek. When he have finished constructing the stones, he will look for other players. Unfortunately for him when there are children can break the stones, the players that he found before will be allowed to go hide again. And the searching begins again.

In Dor Nama, it takes two teams with the same number of members. At the beginning of the game, both teams will be split up and looking for a hiding place. Then each member of trying to find the members of other team. If a player saw his opponent’s team, He will shout other player’s name. Then the other player will “die”. The winner is the team that last stand.

Perhaps there are many more types of traditional games in addition to those mentioned above. Surely, most of those games teach children to always be active, not stay in one place, and played togethter. We didn’t have to expense some money to play a traditional game. Not like children games to day. To play them, children just stay in one place, they play individually, and expensive.

[EF#15 WEEKLY CHALLENGE] Children Games Now and Then

Baca Versi Bahasa Indonesia

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