If You Loved Squid Game, You Will Enjoy These Children’s Games From Around The World

This children’s game is, in fact, played as a nationwide sport. There is no equipment involved; all you need is strength, stamina, and strategy. Two teams meet on opposite sides of a field. A player has to cross into the opposing team’s territory to tag as many players as possible without getting caught. And they have to chant ‘kabbadi, kabbadi, kabbadi’ the entire time without stopping. 

Translated from Portuguese, this means ‘fight of the roosters’. Here, two players tuck a scarf into their pocket or waistband, and each of them crosses their dominant hand across their chests. They aren’t allowed to use this hand. Then they hop on one leg to try and grab the scarf from their opponent by using their non-dominant hand. Putting your leg down or using your dominant hand gets you knocked out of the game. The winner is the person who retains his scarf.

The children form a chain and each child places their hand on the shoulders of the kid in front of them. The leader of the line is the dragon’s ‘head’ and the last child is the ‘tail’. The idea is for the head to try and tag the tail. This is hard to do as the children behind the head try to stop this, but have to do it without breaking the line. When the head catches the tail, the players switch positions, so each child gets the chance to be both, a head and a tail.

Translated it means, ‘Stop There’. To play this game, one child takes the ball and the other kids start running away. The one with the ball names one of the players by saying ‘Alto ahi’ followed by their name. All the players freeze and the player with the ball then takes three steps forward towards the child whose name they called, and throws the ball at them. If they touch them with the ball, then the ‘caught’ player becomes the new one to shout, Alto ahi. If they miss, they get three attempts to touch another player before they have to do a ‘prenda’ or forfeit, which can be anything funny, from singing a song to hopping on one foot.

Jeu de la barbichette or ‘the game of the goatee’ involves two children sitting opposite each other and grabbing each other’schins. The children sing a song together and after that, the first player to break into smiles or laughs loses, and traditionally, the winner got to give the other child a playful slap.

In this fun game, the children playing have to ensure that their wooden top is the last one spinning. The traditional Japanese tops themselves are beautiful and are engraved with intricate characters. Kids use a cord to make them spin, and see whose top can spin the longest.

Koekhappen or ‘bites of cakes’ is a fun game where slices of delicious cake are tied to strings. The children stand within eating range and the cake is dangled in front of them. The child who finishes their slice fastest is the winner.