Title: Chocolate

General Information About Item:

• Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
• Language:
• Country of Origin: Chile
• Informant: Catalina Garcia
• Date Collected:

Informant Data:

I am the informant. I am 20 years old and I was 4 years old at the time I learned this hand game. I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. My family is from Spaniard origin. And I have a younger brother and an older sister.

Text:

NATIVE

Choco choco, la la

Choco choco, te te

Choca la, choco te

Choco la te

PHONETICS

Chokho chokho, lah lah

Chokho chokho te te

Chokho lah, chokho te

Chokho lah te

TRANSLATION (WORD-FOR-WORD)

Choco choco, la la

Choco choco, te te

Choca la, choco te

Choco la te

TRANSLATION

Choco choco, la la

Choco choco, te te

Choca la, choco te

Choco la te

Note: The Native song and the translation are the same because the Spanish and English words for chocolate are identical. The song is simply the word ‘chocolate’ broken apart in various ways.

Contextual Data:

I learned this hand game at school. Trewhela´s school is a private school in Santiago. It was played among kids during recess or when we were supposed to wait or stand in line. All the kids knew it and rarely you would have to teach it to others. Kids played all sorts of hand games in my school but this one was one of the simplest ones that everyone knew. At that age it required some practice to get the coordination in order to play. I would also play this game with my siblings on car rides or at home. The word has 4 syllables (cho-co-la-te) but for playing the game it is chunked into 3 pieces (choco-la-te), which help with the rhythm of the game.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Additional Data:

At the same time I learned this hand game I learned a variation that relies on the same type of structure – chunking words into syllables and adding a hand motion to each syllable  – but it used a different word. The word was “mariposa” and this game was slightly less popular than “Chocolate”. “Mariposa” means “butterfly”. The word has four syllables (Ma-ri-po-sa) and just as “chocolate” it is chunked into 3 pieces (mari-po-sa).

Collector’s Name:

Catalina Garcia ’21

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore
• Children Hand Games
• Chocolate

Title:

General Information About Item:

• Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
• Language:
• Country of Origin: Turkey
• Informant: Selin Capan
• Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

Selin is a turkish woman. She is 20 years old and grew up and lived in Turkey until she came to study in the US on September 2017. She speaks Turkish and English. She lived with her two parents and had no siblings.

Rules:

In this hand game, you increase the speed of the movements progressively until one person fails to do them.

Text:

This is a non-verbal game.

Contextual Data:

Selin learned this game at school where children would play it during recess, when they were bored, during class, waiting in line, etcetera. Children liked this game because it only required their hands, and therefore they could play it in all the previous settings and it was convenient. She would only play it at school, since she had no siblings or other children to play with. If someone was asked to play by two different kids at the same time (for instance, in the school bus), who the person would choose to play with would imply that they liked that person more than the other. The game can only be played between two people, so you have to make a choice of who to play with. Most children knew this game and it would only be played among children.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Collector’s Name:

Catalina Garcia ’21

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore
• Children Hand Games
• [Name of the game]

Title: Chapulin Colorado

General Information About Item:

• Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
• Language:
• Country of Origin: Chile
• Informant: Catalina Garcia
• Date Collected:

Informant Data:

I am the informant. I am 20 years old and I was 4 years old at the time I learned this hand game. I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile. My family is from Spaniard origin. And I have a younger brother and an older sister.

Text:

NATIVE

Chapulin. Colorado. Me hago pis. O me aguanto.

Chapulin, colorado, me hago pis, o me aguanto.

PHOENTICS

Chapooleen. Kohlohradoh. Meh agho pees. O meh ahghuantoh

Chapooleen, kohlohradoh, meh agho pees, o meh ahghuantoh.

TRANSLATION (WORD-FOR-WORD)

Chapulin. Colored. Me do piss. Or me holds.

Chapulin, colored, me do piss, or me holds.

TRANSLATION

Chapulin. Colored. I piss myself. Or I hold it.

Chapulin, colored, I piss myself, or I hold it.

Contextual Data:

I learned this hand game at school. Trewhela´s school is a private school in Santiago. It was played among kids during recess or when we were supposed to wait or stand in line, although this game required proper amounts of space as you need to jump. This game was funny in a somewhat “naughty” way since it talks about pissing your pants. Kids would always end up laughing when someone ended the game with their legs open, meaning they had “pissed themselves”. Many times kids would close their legs even if the had ended with open legs, somewhat “cheating” in order to avoid the embarrassment. Kids would challenge each other to see who would piss their pants and who wouldn´t. The game gets boring fairly quickly though, as kids realize that it is really easy to control how your legs end up (open or close) by just pacing your jumps to the song. Additionally, “Chapulín Colorado” is a character from a mexican television series. This is not a kids show, and kids in my school never watched the show. Nonetheless, everyone knew who the character was and his name was present in the game but people didn’t have the show on mind while playing the game. It seems that kids used his name for the game solely because of its sound and the unusualness of it. On a different variation of the game, when kids didn’t have enough space to close and open their legs, they would imitate the motion of legs with their index and middle finger, crossing them and opening them as they sang the song.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Collector’s Name:

Catalina Garcia ’21

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore
• Children Hand Games
• Chapulin Colorado

Title: Alphabet

General Information About Item:

• Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
• Language:
• Country of Origin: Rwanda
• Informant: Umunyana Kyla
• Date Collected: May 15, 2019

Informant Data:

Umunyana Kyla was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2003 and moved to Rwanda shortly after. She has lived in between Rwanda and Zambia ever since. She learned this game in her primary school in Rwanda.

Rules:

The game is incredibly complex, it needs to be played by three or more people, with the hand motions changing almost every two sentences. The hand motions involved in the game can be seen in the video. At the utterance of the last word: “freeze” the players are supposed to stop moving for as long as they are willing. Slowly all of the players will “break” until only one remains still “frozen” and this player is the winner.

Text:

Chu Chu Chihuaha Mhm Mhm

I saw a best friend ka biskwit

Chu Chu Chihuaha Mhm Mhm

I saw a best friend ka biskwit

Ice Cream Sugar and a Cherry on top

Ice Cream Sugar and a Cherry on top

Down Down Baby down

Gadigadiga

That is what I like

Gadigadiga

Down Down Baby down

Gadigadiga

Now is time for some music

I wanna A B C D E F G

I wanna  H I J K L M N O P

I wanna  Q R S T U V

I wanna W X YZ

I wanna do it do it turn around

I wanna do it do it turn around

Now FREEZE

Contextual Data:

Kyla said this game is typically played by young girls during “break time” at school. “Break time” would happen at 10AM every day after the first three classes of the day. During this time, the students would eat a small snack for around 10 minutes and then were given free time to do what they wanted for 30 minutes. Kyla said that the game would begin with two or three girls playing the game and would slowly grow to ten or twenty students. The girls would play this game and others like it until “break time” ended.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Alphabet Game – Rwandan

Additional Notes:

When looking at this game, we also looked at the impact of it. Kyla said that when her friends would play the game it would help create bonds of friendship and even resolve conflict. “If my friend Umwali harms my other friend Kay and Umwali doesn’t want to verbally apologize, she can try to initiate a game with Kay instead. This would be widely taken as an apology. Kay could reject the apology by refusing to play or accept it by playing enthusiastically”. As a result, hand games could function not just as a means to create friendship, but one to mend friendship as well.

Collector’s Name:

Manzi Bryan ’21

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore
• Children Hand Games
• Alphabet

Title: Kirenge

General Information About Item:

• Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
• Language:
• Country of Origin: Rwanda
• Informant: Manzi Bryan
• Date Collected: May 9, 2019

Informant Data:

The informant is myself, I was born in Kigali, Rwanda to Rwandan parents. I attended Primary and Secondary school in Rwanda and since 2017 have lived in Hanover, NH at Dartmouth College.

Rules:

Please refer to “Contextual Data” section for this example to learn more about the rules.

Text:

This is a non-verbal game.

Contextual Data:

I learned this game in primary school when I was around 11 years old. A boy taught it to me at a party and I have seen it played mostly at parties ever since. Adults are usually not invited to these parties. The game is typically played with some accompanying music

The foot game consists of two players starting off by touching the inner sides of their feet, then they touch the outer sides of their feet followed by the back sides of their feet and finally the heels of their feet. The game is often played at parties and with music playing. The movements become faster as the game goes on until one of the players cannot keep up. This player is the ‘loser’.The movements and tempo should accompany whichever song is playing. Players often make sounds as they jump and when the game ends, both players are often breathing fairly heavily.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Video:

Kirenge – Rwandan

Additional Notes:

There is consistency in the way this game is played across sub-saharan Africa. From Ghanaians to Rwandans, almost everyone who knows the game also has the same rules about how the game is played.

Collector’s Name:

Manzi Bryan ’21

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore
• Children Games
• Children Foot Games
• Kirenge

Title: Crab

General Information About Item:

• Customary Lore, Children Hand Games
• Language: Vietnamese
• Country of Origin: Vietnam
• Informant: Thuyen Tran
• Date Collected: May 13, 2019

Informant Data:

Thuyen Tran was born in Vietnam and lived there till she was eight years old. She then relocated to the California, United States with her mother, father, and younger brother. She joined Dartmouth College in 2015 to pursue her major in Mathematics. She hopes to be an educator and a school principal in future.

Rules:

Please refer to “Contextual Data” section for this example to learn more about the rules.

Text:

This is a non-verbal game.

Contextual Data:

The Crab game has non-verbal and involves only hand movements. This game would be played between two children for the purposes of keeping themselves occupied. To play this game, one has to twist one’s fingers to fold on top of each other. Each player’s hands would end up looking crab-like. Since children’s fingers are more flexible due to their youthfulness, this game is more suited for them. Their hands can be able to easily assume the folding that would look complex and impossible to an outsider. Once the players’ hands are in positions, they use their crab-like hands to undo the folded fingers of the other player, until they manage to unfold all their opponent’s fingers. The player to do this first wins the game. Since this game was primarily played between children, children would learn the rules of these games and how to play this game by playing with other children.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript: 

(Crab Game)

Okay, so here’s how you assemble the hand… There you go. Then I have my fingers hitting each other, and then…yeah, this one loses…

Collector’s Name:

Wendy Kangethe ’19

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Folklore
• Children Hand Games
• Crab