Holiday Games
By Pezzie Granger

You have your food to eat, the crafts to make and cards to send out. You now have friends or family coming over, what to do? Most people do what? Play a game or other form of entertainment and what better then the holidays! It could be a favorite board game or card game; then again there are many traditional games that get play just at the holidays. I set out on this journey to find out about these games. And maybe start a new tradition as well!

All around the world the holidays are in full swing by year's end. No matter what the holiday some kind of game is played among family and friends. From card or board games to traditional games. So follow me on your brooms as we go around to various locations of the world learning about different traditional holiday games.

Let's start in Korea, where they have a traditional game they like to call "Yunnori". It's played with a combination of four sticks that determines how far to move on the board. A board can be set up anywhere with chalk or a marker. The bigger board the better they say. The sticks are flat on one side and rounded on the other, like a canoe, with tapered ends. There is a special mark on the flat side, called baekdo. Played in teams, each team has four chips, black or white. All chips of one color, has to go around the board once for the team to win. Learn more about the game here. For now, now we need to fly on over to Greece. Sfakia, Crete, Greece to be exact where a traditional card game called Diloti is taking place. The game is mostly played in taverns, like the Leaky Caldron. It's an interesting game really, to learn about the game I found this wonderful resource link on the Internet that explains the game!

The dreidel game is a popular game played at Hanukkah. Players spin a four-sided top that contains Hebrew letters, one each side: "Nun," "Gimel," "Hay" and "Shin." The letters stand for "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham" mean-a great miracle happened there. Each player starts by putting something in the middle from knuts or pennies, to candies, nuts or raisins. A player spins and watches for what side lands face up. "Nun" means nothing, you win nothing, you lose nothing. "Gimel" means you take all. "Hay" means you win half of what is in the kitty. "Shin" means you lose, and must put one knut, penny, nut or whatever is used for winnings in the middle. If you want to try playing the game, come on over here. You can make your own dreidel and play with family and friends, come over to this site.

Another holiday with a traditional game is Kwanzaa. During the Kwanzaa celebration the game called Oware is played. It's called mankala in East Africa, Ohoro in South Africa and it is called Oware or Ayo in the west. The game has a board with 12 'cups', 48 pieces (such as stones) and two players. Each take turns picking stones up from a cup on their side *closest to them* and going around left to right dropping stones. There are many ways to play this game. Sometimes it's when the player who doesn't have any more stones on their side game is over. In the end it's the player with the most pieces that wins. Try the game out here.

There are many more games around the world that are played around holiday time and anytime of the year. From a simple board or card game to a traditional game. It's entertaining and fun. Plus it brings family and friends together and that's what holiday time is all about.