Cutting flour
Slicing flour is a game for children and a skill game that is mainly played at children 's birthday parties . The game is historically verifiable as early as the 19th century and is probably much older; the partially comparable game Trygodiphesis was played in ancient Greece .
Rules of the game and variants
The game is about a mountain of flour having to be reduced in size by the other players without a toothpick in it moving. For the game, a mountain of flour is built up on a clean table top or a flat plate and a toothpick is inserted into the tip. All players in turn receive a blunt knife (or a spoon) with which they each have to remove part of the flour. If the toothpick slips or falls over, the player in question must hand in a deposit.
Instead of the toothpick, a reward can be used, which must be eaten by the loser or the player who follows him or taken up by mouth from the flour without using the hands. Historically, mainly coins or other objects were placed on the flour. Still other variants use several gummy bears hidden in the flour , which the finder can fish out of the flour as a reward.
Pile of flour at the start of the game
First cuts
The pile is getting smaller
Lost
history
Flour chopping is a traditional game that appears and is documented in game literature and in stories from the 19th century. For example, in the book German folk and gymnastics games for young and old from 1865, there are game instructions in which a coin or ring is placed on the flour as a reward, which must also be picked up with the mouth. In the book Volk- und Kinder-Spiele from Schleswig-Holstein from 1874 the game is also described and named with the alternative name Mönchscheeren . In the work it is compared with other games that are played with earth instead of flour, including, for example, Himmelhaken , in which the other players pile up earth for as long as they can hum, so that afterwards another player has to pull a knife out of the pile with his mouth , or stealing earth , in which the other players remove earth from each other with a knife and put it on their own heap. The oldest version of a comparable game is the Trygodiphesis (τρυγοδίφησις) played in Greece , in which the players had to use their mouths to pull objects out of a vessel with wine yeast .
The Austrian writer Ignaz Franz Castelli mentioned flour cutting in his Viennese Life Pictures from 1828 in the story Das Haustheater :
"In the house of the merchant Bratsch the young people sat together in a separate room and did great things: They played pawns games , blind cows , flour chopping and whatever the names are, which make movement or jokes."
literature
- Robert Emil Lembke, Michael Schiff: The great house and family book of the games . Lichtenberg-Verlag, Cologne 1969, p. 52 .
Web links
- Flour cutting in the game wiki
supporting documents
- ^ Robert Emil Lembke , Michael Schiff: The large house and family book of games . Lichtenberg-Verlag, Cologne 1969, p. 52 .
- ↑ Slicing flour. In: spielewiki.org. Retrieved May 2, 2016 .
- ^ A b FA Jacob: German folk and gymnastics games for young and old: (168) . A handbook for parents, teachers, educators, children and Young friends and e. Addition to every gymnastics guide. Maruschke & Berendt, 1865, p. 119 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ A b c Heinrich Handelmann: Popular and children's games from Schleswig-Holstein . Ernst Homann, Kiel 1874, p. 98 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Slicing flour | Games for the children's birthday. In: Games for children's birthday parties. spiele-fuer.den-kindergeburtstag.de, accessed on May 2, 2016 .
- ↑ τρυγοδίφησις. In: enacademic.com. Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, accessed May 2, 2016 .
- ^ A b Ignaz Franz Castelli: Wiener Lebensbilder. Sketches from life and goings-on in this capital . Bey F. Tendler, 1828, p. 37 ( limited preview in Google Book search).